Trump dismisses idea that Iran betrays his 'no new wars' campaign
message
[June 08, 2026]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump is dismissing the idea
that launching the war with Iran this year betrayed his refrain of “No
new wars” that he made repeatedly as he campaigned again for the White
House.
Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said
he “didn't guarantee” there would be no wars if he were back in office.
"First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the
strongest military in the world?" Trump said.
Trump also defended plans for a now-scrapped $1.8 billion fund that
would have compensated allies of the Republican president and he
repeated his baseless claims of mass fraud in California’s drawn-out
vote count from Tuesday’s primary. He ended the interview abruptly when
he became frustrated with pushback from NBC's Kristen Welker.
Iran ‘is not an endless war’
In his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly cast his Democratic opponents as
warmongers and said he was a president who started “no new wars" and
would bring an era of peace.
But Trump said in the NBC interview, taped Friday in Wisconsin, that as
a candidate, “I didn’t promise anything.”
“I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been
doing this for three months,” he said of the war with Iran, which began
Feb. 28.
Trump said he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a
service” because he had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But
elsewhere in the interview, Trump repeated a contradictory message where
he said U.S. strikes last year “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites.
He also defended his decision in his first term to withdraw from
Democratic President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, an agreement
he has heavily criticized, without negotiating the “better deal” he has
promised to reach.
“It takes years to do these things,” Trump said.
Trump without evidence claims fraud in California vote
California's notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for
election conspiracy theories, and Trump since Tuesday's election has
claimed without evidence that Democrats are rigging the election. The
Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said Friday that
his office had opened “multiple election fraud investigations.”
Late-tallied Democratic-leaning mail ballots have eaten into the vote
totals for Trump's preferred candidates for governor and Los Angeles
mayor. While Trump has often said that changes to vote totals as late
ballots are counted are a sign of fraud, they are merely a reflection of
a slow vote-counting process.
Trump in the interview kept claiming that it was a sign of “cheating”
and “a rigged election," and grew increasingly frustrated as Welker
pressed him for evidence to support that.
“All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look,” Trump said.
“But that’s not evidence,” Welker responded.
“And I listen. And I listen to people. And let’s see what happens,”
Trump replied.
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President Donald Trump arrives to speak to reporters aboard Air
Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md., to Eau Claire,
Wis., Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
‘Anti-weaponization’ fund
Trump defended plans that his Department of Justice said it has now
abandoned to create a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund” as
part of a settlement to resolve Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over
the leak of his tax returns.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that the
department was scrapping the plan. That announcement came after the
plan was paused by a judge and after both Democrats and some
Republicans said they were concerned about the fund's lack of
oversight and the possibility of payouts being made to participants
in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Trump told NBC he thought the fund was “a great idea” and that he
would be “disappointed” if it were not approved.
When asked if he thought people who attacked police officers on Jan.
6 should get a payout, Trump said, “I wouldn’t be inclined to say
so, but I have to see it." He then began making unfounded and false
claims about the riot and those who stormed the Capitol. Trump
granted a sweeping pardon on his first day back in office in January
2025 to the more than 1,500 people prosecuted over Jan. 6.
Rain interruptions and an abrupt end
The NBC interview was conducted in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, before
Trump was set to speak at a roundtable event with farmers. The
interview was repeatedly interrupted as waves of heavy rain fell on
the metal roof of the barn where the taping took place, making it
difficult at times to hear.
At the end, Welker pressed Trump on the settlement fund and his
claims about the California election. Trump raised his voice and
began calling Welker and the media “crooked," attacking her
credibility and complaining about what he called “the fake, dirty
press.”
As Welker tried to switch subjects, Trump continued on and there was
cross talk between the two. Trump ended the interview, saying said,
“Let's call it quits." He took off his microphone, telling Welker,
“Thank you, darling. Have a good time." He said he had given the
interview enough time, stood up and walked away.
Welker said during the broadcast that she spoke to Trump on Saturday
and he agreed the rain had caused complications and said he would do
another interview in the future.
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