Washington, June 7, (dpa/GNA) – US President Donald Trump has denied having promised not to start any new wars. “I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said in an interview with US broadcaster NBC News that aired on Sunday.
At the same time, he claimed that the war with Iran was not an “endless” war. “This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months, much of it has been under the form, a pretty good form of cease fire,” Trump asserted. The US president reiterated that the conflict was nearing its end, even though there has been no visible progress between Washington and Tehran for weeks.
“No wars” was a central slogan of Trump’s 2024 election campaign, with which he sought to rally supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. He campaigned on being the first president in modern times not to start any new wars.
Shortly after his victory in November 2024, Trump also said, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”
Meanwhile, Trump sees no need to withdraw troops from the region. “It’s unlikely,” he said. “But I think we’ll keep them there until such time as we have a completion.” “It costs us very little to keep them there,”
NBC quoted Trump as saying, later adding: “I would say it would be foolhardy to do that because maybe we may use them” to force Iran’s hand at the negotiating table. According to NBC News, around 50,000 troops are currently stationed in the region.
Tehran is demanding the complete withdrawal of US troops from the region as part of the framework agreement to end the war.
GNA