Trump: I Had A Premonition They Would Attack First

• 4.03.2026, 12:21

The U.S. president said he personally made the decision to go to war with Iran.

US President Donald Trump stated that it was he who insisted on launching a military operation against Iran. In this way, the White House head responded to the question of whether Israel pushed him to such a decision. According to Trump, he decided to act proactively after the failure of negotiations on the nuclear deal. "Israel did not force the U.S. to launch an operation against Iran. We had negotiations with these crazy people [Iran] and I had a premonition that they would attack first," Trump said at the briefing.

The US president said the Islamic republic did not seek a diplomatic settlement. "From the way the negotiations were going, I think they [Iran] were going to attack first. And I didn't want that to happen," Trump noted. He was also asked what the outcome of the military operation the U.S. considers to be the "worst case scenario" for itself. Trump replied that such a scenario would be the rise to power in Iran of "someone as bad as the former" ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was eliminated on February 28. Earlier, Iranian opposition media reported that the son of the assassinated man, Mojtaba Khamenei, became the new supreme leader of the Islamic republic.