US President Donald Trump said Friday he would "absolutely" bomb Iran again if intelligence indicated the country was still able to enrich uranium to nuclear-weapons grade.
Asked in a White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week's sorties were not successful in ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said: "Without question. Absolutely."
Trump said Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "got beat to hell" in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel and that "it was a great time to end it."
Trump said he thinks something will happen in Russia's war in Ukraine that would get it "settled," citing his recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin but offering no other details.
"We're working on that one. President Putin called up and he said, I'd love to help you with Iran. I said, do me a favor: I'll handle Iran. Help me with Russia. We got to get that one settled. And I think something's going to happen there," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said his July 9 trade deadline was not a fixed date, telling reporters at the White House that it could be sooner or later than that date, when wider U.S. tariffs are set to be re-imposed if deals are not reached.
"We can do whatever we want. We could extend it. We could make it shorter. I'd like to make it shorter. I'd like to just send letters out to everybody: Congratulations, you're paying 25%," he told reporters at the White House.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier said trade deals could be done by Labor Day.
Trump said the United States will get a lot of mineral rights from Congo under an agreement between that country and Rwanda that he will promote during an Oval Office meeting later in the day.
