President Trump says the U.S. will meet with Iran next week, as a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds for now.
During a news conference Wednesday to cap off the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, the president said there may be a formal agreement at some point with Iran, but he doesn’t believe one is necessary because their nuclear sites were “blown up to kingdom come.”
“We’re going to talk to them next week, with Iran,” the president told reporters at the press conference, adding that the U.S. is going to “meet” with them, although he didn’t specify who will be involved in the meeting or where it will take place.
“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” he said. “The only thing we’d be asking for is what we were asking for before about, ‘we want no nuclear.’ But we destroyed the nuclear. In other words, that’s destroyed. I said, ‘Iran will not have nuclear.’ Well, we blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come. And so I don’t feel very strongly about it. If we got a document, it wouldn’t be bad.”
The president met with other world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, amid cautious optimism about the ceasefire the Trump administration brokered. The 12-day conflict left 28 people dead in Israel and hundreds in Iran.
Matthias Schrader / AP 
“It was a 12-day war. And we think it’s over,” Mr. Trump said during the press conference. “I don’t think they’re going to be going back at each other, I don’t think so.”
“Because I dealt with both, and they’re both tired, exhausted,” Mr. Trump said. “They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently, and they were both satisfied to go home and get out. And can it start again? I guess some day it can, it could maybe start soon.”
At the summit, Mr. Trump said Iran’s enrichment efforts were set back “basically decades.” The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were “very, very successful. It’s called ‘obliteration,'” he said at the news conference. An initial classified assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, however, estimated the strikes only set back Tehran’s nuclear program by a matter of months, according to three sources familiar with its contents.
Regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, Mr. Trump expressed optimism and said there’s been “great progress.”
“I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” Mr. Trump said. “I think because of this attack that we made, I think we’re going to have some very good news.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who complimented the president on his efforts to boost other countries’ defense spending and on his efforts in the Middle East.
“You are a man of strength and also a man of peace,” Rutte told Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said they discussed “how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace deal.”
“We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace close,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding, “Details will follow.”
The president said of his conversation with Zelenskyy, “I took from the meeting that he’d like to see it end. I think it’s a great time to end it. I’m going to speak to Vladimir Putin and see if we can get it ended.”
A Ukrainian BBC reporter, who said her husband is a soldier in Ukraine, asked the president whether the U.S. would provide Ukraine with Patriot missile defense systems, which intercept ballistic missiles.
“They do want to have the anti-missile missiles … the Patriots,” Mr. Trump replied, “and we’re going to see if we can make some available.” He said the missiles were “hard to get,” and the U.S. has been providing them to Israel. “They’re very effective — 100% effective.”
The president, upon learning that the reporter was living with her children in Warsaw while her husband fights in Ukraine, said, “That’s rough stuff, right?” And after he answered her question, he wished her luck and offered his regards to her husband.
NATO members, with the exceptions of Spain and Slovakia, have agreed to a dramatic increase in their defense spending, to 5% of GDP, a goal pressed by Mr. Trump, though the U.S. defense spending is short of that target. Before leaving for the summit, Mr. Trump said the U.S. shouldn’t have to reach that target, since it’s contributed so much to NATO in the past.
“This week, the NATO allies committed to dramatically increase their defense spending to that 5% of GDP, something that no one really thought possible,” Mr. Trump said at his press conference, adding that it will be known as “The Hague defense commitment.”
Asked about Spain’s refusal to commit to the 5% threshold, Mr. Trump said he liked Spain and its people, “But Spain is the only country — out of all other countries — that refuses to pay,” and he said it was getting “a little bit of a free ride.” The president went on to say that the U.S. is negotiating with Spain on trade, and “we’re going to make them pay twice as much.”
It’s was a whirlwind trip for Mr. Trump, who arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday and is scheduled to fly back to Washington on Wednesday.
The president said he’s leaving NATO with a different perspective about Article 5 — the agreement that the allies will come to each other’s aid when attacked — after hearing about it directly from fellow leaders. The president told reporters he no longer considers the alliance a “rip-off,” and wants the U.S. to help defend other NATO nations.
Weijia Jiang and
Haley Ott
contributed to this report.