President Donald Trump said the United States would work alongside Iran to retrieve and destroy its stockpile of highly enriched uranium if the two countries reach an agreement to end their three-month-old war, and that he would degrade Iran’s military further and seize the material by force if no deal comes together.

The remarks, among his most detailed yet on the state of negotiations, came in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. The sit-down with moderator Kristen Welker was taped Friday at a farm in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, in a barn with a metal roof; a rainstorm and a technical glitch repeatedly interrupted it, and Trump ended the conversation roughly 50 minutes in after a tense exchange over election claims and his criticism of the press.

“We’re very close,” Trump said of a deal with Iran. “We have a couple of points; they don’t even seem like big points. They’ve conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons.”

“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said. “And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us.”

“Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly,” he added. “And we’ll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way.”

Trump said the U.S. could track Iran’s nuclear material from orbit, crediting his Space Force. “If anybody walked there, if you walked over there, I would be able to read your first name on your lapel,” he said. “And these are cameras up in space. It’s pretty amazing technology.”

The president described the two sides as “very close” to a pact but said he was holding out for tighter language. Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons, he said, but he insisted on broadening the prohibition. “I said, ‘Well, what happens if they, not develop, but they go out and purchase, they acquire?'” Trump recounted. “So, they don’t have the right to develop or purchase, acquire or buy.” He said Iranian negotiators initially resisted, “and then they didn’t.”

Trump argued that economic desperation would ultimately force Iran’s hand, describing a country he said could not afford to keep fighting. The costs to Tehran are “not sustainable,” he said, because “they have an economy that’s shot.” He cast the standoff as a contest Iran cannot win, saying its leaders had run out of room to maneuver: “They’ve got no choice.”

The pressure stems in part from Iran’s months-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime chokepoint that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil. The shutdown has sent oil prices climbing worldwide and lifted gas prices at home — a political liability Trump acknowledged even as he insisted Iran was suffering far more. He framed the trade-off in terms aimed at his farm-state audience.

“Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could’ve kept it that way,” Trump said. “But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody. We’re going to have higher gasoline. We’re going to have a little higher fertilizer, etc., etc. But I’m going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people.” Relief at the pump would follow a settlement, he said: “When we have a completion, you will see things like you’ve never seen. The oil will go down.”

Trump said any new agreement would not immediately release Iranian assets frozen under sanctions, a sequence he said would reward good behavior rather than precede it. That “comes after,” he said. “If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking.” He criticized former President Barack Obama, who negotiated the 2015 nuclear accord that Trump abandoned in his first term, for sending cash to Tehran. Trump said he did not regret failing to strike his own deal back then: “They weren’t ready. No, this is much better.”

The president said he had no plans to withdraw the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops in the region despite a fragile, repeatedly violated ceasefire, arguing he might still need them as leverage. “It would be foolhardy to do that because maybe we may use them,” he said, adding that the troops would stay “until such time as we have a completion.” He said he did not consider them to be in danger.

Trump asserted that the war had hollowed out Iran’s arsenal. “We have totally destroyed their military,” he said. “Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity.” He estimated Iran retained “21%, 22%” of its prewar missiles — “a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.” Days earlier, Iran had launched strikes across the Persian Gulf, including a hit on Kuwait International Airport, demonstrating it still has firepower.

He pushed back on critics urging a faster resolution, comparing the conflict to a far longer war. “I’m into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years,” Trump said. “And all they do is say, ‘Whoa, when are you going to win?’ If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way.” He said reaching a deal takes time because of how long the two countries have been adversaries: “These people have been fighting for 47 years. They’ve been killing Americans.”

Trump said he found Iran’s new leadership “more rational, very smart” following Israeli and U.S. strikes that killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many of his deputies. The ayatollah’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has succeeded him and is “part of” the approval process for any agreement, Trump said. He said he would be open to speaking with the new leader directly — “I would if he’d like to” — but had not yet done so, describing him as seriously hurt: “He’s pretty badly injured. So there’s a certain bravery there.” Asked whether he knew the leader’s location, Trump said, “I don’t want to say whether or not I know where he is. But there’s a good probability that I do.”

The campaign, which the administration has called “Operation Epic Fury,” was declared concluded last week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told lawmakers that recent U.S. strikes near the Strait of Hormuz were defensive responses to Iranian attacks on shipping. A ceasefire first reached in April has been extended several times but has frayed amid renewed exchanges of fire.

On the domestic front, Trump offered a fuller defense of the roughly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund his administration has championed and did not rule out compensating Jan. 6 defendants charged with assaulting police. Asked directly whether those who attacked officers should receive taxpayer money, he said, “I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.” He went on: “If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed.” He argued many had pleaded guilty only “because they were frightened” and told Welker to “look at the tapes.”

The fund’s future is uncertain: a federal judge temporarily blocked it on May 29, and the acting attorney general told lawmakers days later that the administration was “not moving forward.”

Trump also claimed that last week’s elections in California were “rigged,” citing the slow vote count. “Do you think it’s appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they’re nowhere close to picking a winner?” he said. Pressed for proof of cheating, he replied, “All I have to do is look.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)