Trump calls Iran conflict ‘small potatoes’ for US

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States could strike Iran’s heavily fortified underground nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”, warning that Washington was closely monitoring activity at the site. Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against Iran, saying its main objective was to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump reiterated that Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. 

Washington may strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain "very soon," US President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday, September 4, reiterating that Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
The site, near Iran's heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is… pic.twitter.com/QtFFBmcqN5

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) September 4, 2026

Trump views the confrontation with Iran as a “military conflict” rather than a full-scale war, calling it “small potatoes for us” and describing US strikes as intermittent. Trump said US forces had struck radar, aircraft and other systems around the strait and destroyed Iranian boats overnight. Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s comments that he would not describe the confrontation with Iran as a war, Trump said he could understand that view. “I could see somebody not calling it a war yet,” he said, again describing the fighting as “very intermittent.”