US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has no regrets over the war with Iran and would make the same decision again, emphasizing that his administration succeeded in destroying Iran's nuclear capability.

In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Trump said, "I don't believe in the word regret. You can always question yourself a little bit. A few people have asked me that. If I had it to do again, I'd do exactly as I did. I took out their nuclear capability."

Trump argued that allowing Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon would have posed an existential threat to Israel and the wider Middle East, as well as to the United States.

"Supposing we were cruising and all of a sudden Iran has a nuclear weapon. They would use it. They're crazy. I deal with them. They're crazy. And they would use it," he said. "They would have wiped out Israel. They would have wiped out the Middle East. And they would have started hitting a couple of our cities."

Addressing the economic impact of the conflict, Trump pointed to the performance of the US stock market, saying, "The stock market right now is at the all-time high....during this whole little conflict, we call it a conflict, the stock market's at an all-time high. The highest it's ever been. Much higher than when I started. You know, when I started it was at 49,000. Now it's at 53. It's going to be 54 pretty soon. It's going up. Continues to go up. Oil went up."

Trump also claimed that Iran is seeking to influence the midterm elections by hoping to oust him so that the Democrats would allow it to retain a nuclear capability. "They're trying to do anything possible to get me out, because they think the Democrats will let them essentially have a nuclear weapon. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon."

The interview came one day after Trump warned at a Republican rally in Texas that the United States had detected activity at Iran's heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain facility.

"We notice there's a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute, because we will have to hit them very hard," Trump said.

Earlier Thursday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi confirmed that the UN nuclear watchdog had detected construction activity at Pickaxe Mountain.

Trump had issued a similar warning last week, saying the United States could soon target the facility.

"Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," he told reporters at the Oval Office, adding, "We may hit Pickaxe very soon...if there was anything going on with Pickaxe."