Asked in the Oval Office on Aug. 31 whether he had ruled out using a nuclear weapon on Iran, President Trump told a reporter: “Well, I would never say that, but the answer is yes. I ruled out—there’s no reason for it. What a stupid question that is, actually,” he said, growing frustrated. “Here they are, they’re totally defeated militarily. So now I defeat them, and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of them? What a stupid question!” Notably, Trump didn’t disavow the use of nuclear weapons, only that “there’s no reason for it.”
The exchange follows reports that the option has been discussed in Washington. Tucker Carlson said on Aug. 28 that a slideshow detailing a proposal for a nuclear strike against Iran has been discussed in the Pentagon. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Aug. 31 that it had independently confirmed that Carlson received the information from an anonymous senior U.S. official. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made the same claim on X on Aug. 16.
Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, agreed with Carlson’s claim during his Aug. 28 appearance on the latter’s show. Kent, who was also interviewed by the Daily Caller, reiterated his assessment that the administration will increasingly consider the use of a nuclear weapon as they run out of options in Iran. He also warned about the Israeli factor in this situation: “I think the Israelis could easily go to President Trump and just say, ‘Hey, we’ll take care of this for you, and you have plausible deniability because we’ve already publicly said that you know we’re not going to be constrained by what the Americans do’. And then Israel comes in, and either does the dirty work for us with something precision, or because the Israelis aren’t really known for precision, they do something that we would never do.”
“To President Trump, I would say don’t consider it [using nuclear weapons] in the war now, and I would say you have to restrain the Israelis,” Kent told the Daily Caller.
