Is this Donald Trump’s final word? Or did he leave room to negotiate?
Amid concerns that the US had sent mixed signals in its outreach to Iran for a peace accord, NBC’s Kristin Welker asked Trump directly about his “bottom line” with Tehran. Would Iran be allowed to pursue nuclear development if limited to civilian purposes? Absolutely not, Trump replied … mostly:
Trump on Iran nuclear program: “Total dismantlement—that’s what we want.” pic.twitter.com/2Z5ZLPE3aI
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) May 4, 2025
Trump’s remarks in an “Meet the Press” interview aired Sunday are the first time he’s publicly announced the ambitious goal since nuclear talks began with Iran a month ago.
- GOP senators, evangelical leaders and other Trump supporters have called on the president in recent days to make his position clear regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
What they’re saying: “Total dismantlement. Yes, that is all I would accept,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
Did he make it clear, though? When Welker continued to press, Trump suggested he could be convinced otherwise:
- Trump said he is open to hearing arguments in favor of Iran having a civilian nuclear program, which is something that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said he supports.
- “There’s a pathway to a civil, peaceful nuclear program if they want one,” Rubio said last month on the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast.
The point of clarity would be that the US wants solid defenses against any military use of nuclear technology. That has been pretty much the US position for the last several decades, but has had wildly different interpretations. The Bush and Trump administrations demanded strict oversight and controls on their civilian development, where the Obama and Biden administrations never bothered to demand supervised compliance. We are now back to the position that Iran must fully disclose and dismantle its military development of nuclear technology in a solidly verifiable manner.
That is not a new position, but it it takes place in an entirely new context. Iran no longer has reliable forward defenses against Israel and the US. Hezbollah stupidly launched a war against Israel and got destroyed as a counterweight proxy for Tehran. That led directly to the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and its alliance with the mullahs. The Iranians have far fewer defenses against punitive and/or pre-emptive strikes on its nuclear and missile facilities, which it learned even before the fall of Assad and collapse of Hezbollah after the equally stupid decision to directly attack Israel — twice.
Tehran is worried enough to have its foreign minister go on Twitter to appeal to the radical anti-Semites in the US to apply pressure on Trump:
LETHAL support for Netanyahu’s Genocide in Gaza and waging WAR on behalf of Netanyahu in Yemen have achieved NOTHING for the American people.
Netanyahu is attempting to brazenly DICTATE what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran. The world has also learned… pic.twitter.com/E35C611O9q
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) May 5, 2025
The world has also learned how Netanyahu is directly MEDDLING within the U.S. Government to DRAG it into another DISASTER in our region. Netanyahu CONNED the Failed Biden Team into handing over UNPRECEDENTED 23 BILLION American Taxpayer Dollars. That is a FRACTION of the cost of ANY mistake against Iran. If the goal is “The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon” as President Trump just said, a deal is achievable and there is only ONE PATH to achieve it: DIPLOMACY based on MUTUAL RESPECT and MUTUAL INTERESTS. The Netanyahu-First minority, terrified of diplomacy, has already divulged its real agenda. The world should pay attention as it reveals its true priority.
Translated: Beware the Jooooooooos.
The Israelis are definitely concerned that Trump might take a deal that does little to contain the Iranian nuclear program. The missteps made by Steven Witkoff with Hamas did nothing to boost their confidence, although they probably feel better having Marco Rubio taking over the national-security adviser position. Witkoff also clarified his earlier, friendlier remarks:
Israel is reportedly deeply concerned that the US is closing in on a “bad deal” with Iran that will not meet Jerusalem’s stated essential conditions, that Israel believes the negotiations are “very, very advanced,” and that the US is not sharing enough information with Israel on key specific issues.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, and has been vocally opposed to any talks that don’t lead Iran to agree to a “Libya-style agreement,” under which Tehran’s entire nuclear program, both military and civilian, would be dismantled completely. …
Trump’s comments followed a series of statements from administration officials about Washington’s demands in the talks, with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been leading the US team in the talks, saying last month that the administration was seeking a deal that would limit rather than destroy Iran’s nuclear program, clarifying later that any deal must “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
Hopefully, the Trump administration has refocused on both the threat and the context. An Iranian nuclear weapon would threaten everyone in the region, not just Israel but also American forces and other allies. The context now gives us the best leverage in decades to put an end to that threat. This is the time for toughness rather than haste to get any kind of deal for domestic political purposes. That’s what got us the JCPOAm, which Trump once correctly called the worst deal in modern American history.
