President Donald J. Trump has never wavered in his stance that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon — a pledge he has made repeatedly, both in office and on the campaign trail.
Since taking office, President Trump has clearly stated no fewer than a dozen times that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon:
- “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple — you don’t have to go to too deep into it. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (6/17/25)
- “I want to see no nuclear weapon in Iran and we’re well on our way to making sure that happens.” (6/16/25)
- “You can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon.” (6/14/25)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. We’re not going to allow that.” (6/11/25)
- “You have to view them as people and I don’t want it to be a violent thing, but they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” (5/16/25)
- “I want them to succeed. I want them to end up being a great country, frankly, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (5/15/25)
- “I want to make a deal with Iran, I want to do something if it’s possible, but for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons.” (5/14/25)
- “Iran can have a much brighter future — but we’ll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or a nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make. We really want them to be a successful country … but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (5/13/25)
- “We want it to be a great country. Let it be a tremendously successful, rich country … but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (5/6/25)
- “I want Iran to be really successful, really great, really fantastic — the only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. If they want to be successful, that’s OK. I want them to be so successful and, you know, the Iranian people are incredible — I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon because the world will be destroyed.” (5/4/25)
- “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (4/17/25)
- “Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (4/14/25)
- “I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country — but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (4/11/25)
- “You cannot allow [Iran] to have a nuclear weapon.” (2/10/25)
- “It’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (2/4/25)
President Trump made the same pledge no fewer than 40 times on the campaign trail and even earlier:
- “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest single threat to our country, but to the entire world.” (11/3/24)
- “I would have been very good to Iran. They — I had to have one thing, no nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest danger to our country going forward, to the world going forward.” (10/29/24)
- “And all I wanted was Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon … That’s all I wanted. Very simple. You can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (10/28/24)
- “We don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/23/24)
- “I didn’t want much. I wanted Iran to be very successful. I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/16/24)
- “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/14/24)
- “I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple.” (10/10/24)
- “I only wanted one thing. You can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/7/24)
- “No, they can’t have nukes. No, they can’t have nukes.” (10/7/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon — and now they’re very close to having one and it’s very dangerous for the world, very dangerous for the world … The biggest problem today, in my opinion, the biggest risk is the nuclear weapons.” (10/1/24)
- “All I want them to do is not have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (9/30/24)
- “The only thing is [Iran] cannot have nuclear weapons.” (9/26/24)
- “I wanted one thing from Iran — no nuclear weapon. I didn’t want much — no nuclear weapon. And now they’re very close to getting it, and you can’t let that happen.” (9/19/24)
- “All we want is we don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. That’s all we want. We don’t want you to have a nuclear weapon.” (9/17/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. We just can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say this. If they do have a nuclear weapon, Israel is gone. It’ll be gone.” (8/27/24)
- “I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (8/23/24)
- “I just wanted to have a deal with Iran, very simple deal — can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s it.” (8/23/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. And we were all set to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. Because once they do, it’s a whole different world, it’s a whole different negotiation.” (8/15/24)
- “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon — it’s very simple.” (8/8/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” (8/5/24)
- “Iran should not have a nuclear weapon … Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.” (7/10/24)
- “The main thing is Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. That was my main thing. The deal was a simple deal. Iran can’t have a nuclear. You know, it can’t have a missile, it can’t have a nuclear missile. It cannot have that nuclear capability.” (6/20/24)
- “We have a very hostile country that wants nuclear weapons. You can’t let that happen.” (6/15/24)
- “Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. They would never have had even close to a nuclear weapon. They are very close to getting a nuclear weapon. You cannot let that happen.” (5/15/24)
- “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon — very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (5/1/24)
- “You can’t let Iran have nuclear weapons.” (4/30/24)
- “Iran wanted to make a deal, and what the deal — 90% of the deal that I want to make is no nuclear weapon. That’s 90% — almost 100%. It might be 100%. That’s all I want. No nuclear weapon for Iran” (3/25/24)
- “I want everybody to be happy. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (2/23/24)
- “I just didn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I said, ‘You know, we’re going to make a great deal. Everybody’s going to be happy. You’re going to be rich as hell again. Everything’s going to be great, but you cannot have a nuclear weapon.’” (1/20/24)
- “They cannot have a nuclear weapon. That was the only thing — the one thing I said, ‘You cannot have.’” (1/5/24)
- “I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (1/5/24)
- “They will have, within a short period of time, nuclear weapons — and that is never something that can be allowed to happen.” (12/30/23)
- “No nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are the single greatest threat to this world.” (11/9/23)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. They can’t have nuclear weapons. It’s too destructive, too powerful. They can’t have it.” (10/29/23)
- “Don’t let Iran have nuclear weapons. That’s my only thing I have to tell you today. Don’t let them have it.” (10/16/23)
- “No nuclear weapons. You can’t give [Iran] nuclear weapons.” (7/15/23)
- “You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let it happen because bad things will happen if that happens.” (6/24/23)
- “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” (1/6/20)
- “Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons!” (6/22/19)
- “We can’t let Iran get a nuclear weapon. We can’t do it. Can’t do it. We cannot let that happen.” (1/24/15)
- “We can’t allow Iran to go nuclear.” (11/4/11)