‘Iran’s navy gone… leaders dead’ to ‘I killed an evil genius’: Top quotes from Trump’s address to nation

Addressing the nation on Operation Epic Fury, Trump said that the American military delivered “swift, decisive and overwhelming victories” on the battlefield, and Iran’s navy and air force had been “decimated” and were now “in ruins”.

Here are key takeaways from his speech:

1. 01

   'Iran's navy gone... leaders dead'

   "Tonight, Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is in ruins, and most of their leaders are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is being decimated as we speak. Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces, with very few left. Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks."

2. 02

   'I vowed never to allow Iran a nuclear weapon'

   "From the very first day I announced my campaign for president in 2015, I vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This regime has been chanting 'death to America, death to Israel' for decades. Their proxies were behind the murder of 241 Americans in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the killing of US service members with roadside bombs, the attack on the USS Cole, and other heinous acts, including the October 7 attacks in Israel."

3. 03

   'Murderous Iran regime killed 45,000 of its own people'

   "The murderous regime also recently killed 45,000 of its own people who were protesting in Iran... For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat. The most violent and thuggish regime on Earth would be free to carry out its campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest, and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield. I will never let that happen..."

4. 04

   'Obama gave Iran $1.7 billion cash to earn their respect'

   "...Very importantly, I terminated Barack Hussein Obama's Iran nuclear deal-a disaster. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash... in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty, but it didn't work. They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb. His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran. They would have had them years ago, and they would have used them. It would have been a different world. There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of great experts."

5. 05

   'I killed an evil genius'

   "The situation has been going on for 47 years and should have been handled long before I arrived in office. I did many things during my two terms in office to stop the quest for nuclear weapons by Iran first. And perhaps, most importantly, I killed General Qassem Soleimani in my first term. He was an evil genius, a brilliant person, a horrible human being; however. The father of the roadside bomb."

6. 06

   'We're totally independent of Middle East'

   "Now we're working along with Venezuela and are, in a true sense, joint venture partners. We're getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas-the second largest reserves on Earth after the United States of America. We're now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help. We don't have to be there. We don't need their oil. We don't need anything they have, but we're there to help, or out."

7. 07

   'My first preference was diplomacy'

   "My first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued its relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement. For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran's key nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer... Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently. We totally obliterated those nuclear sites. The regime then sought to rebuild its nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons. They were also rapidly building a vast stockpile of conventional ballistic missiles and would soon have had missiles that could reach the American homeland, Europe, and virtually any other place on Earth."

8. 08

   'Iran had weapons that nobody believed they had'

   "Iran's strategy was so obvious. They wanted to produce as many missiles as possible, and they did with the longest range possible. And they had some weapons that nobody believed they had. We just learned that out. We took them out. We took them all out so that no one would really dare stop them. And they raced for a nuclear bomb, a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon like nobody's ever seen before. They were right at the doorstep. For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words if you're not willing to take action when the time comes."