Watch: Trump holds a press conference to answer questions related to Iran

President Donald Trump provided an update on Iran and answered questions from reporters before leaving Florida on Monday.

Watch Trump’s press conference in the video player above.

The press conference came amid growing concerns about rising oil and gasoline prices due to the war.

Trump told reporters that the war with Iran began because that country began working on a new site to develop materials for nuclear weapons.

Trump said the new site aims to replace facilities bombed by the United States last year

“But they started working on another site, a different site, a different kind of site — and it was protected by granite,” Trump said.

The president added that Iran wants to use “the dramatically increased ballistic missile threat to make it nearly impossible to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” claiming that otherwise Iran would have been able to control the Middle East.

Although the president has long declared an “America First” policy that prioritizes the United States, Trump suggested in his news conference that the war favored other countries, especially those that depend on oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I mean, we do it for other parts of the world, including countries like China,” Trump said.

The president was asked about his comments earlier Monday in which he told a reporter the war was “so full on,” while the Pentagon said Monday on social media: “We’ve just started fighting.”

Asked if this was the end or the beginning, Trump said: “It’s the beginning of building a new country,” a comment that seemed to indicate that the United States may be engaged in building a new Iran.

Trump says he is “disappointed” in Iran’s choice of a new leader

The president told reporters he believes Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader will lead to “more of the same” for a country he seeks to change.

Trump said it would be “inappropriate” to say whether the new Iranian leader would be targeted for a deadly attack, as happened to his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump said he liked the “idea” of choosing a leader from an “internal” group of candidates, saying that this process was “working well” with new Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez, after US forces arrested Nicolas Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the United States.

Trump also raised his expectations by saying that he wants an “internal and eternal” candidate in Iran.

Trump says Vance may be less enthusiastic about striking Iran than he is

Trump said he and Vice President J.D. Vance “get along very well” on issues related to Iran, but the president suggested his second-in-command was “probably less enthusiastic about going” than he was.

Trump also noted that Vance is “a little different from me philosophically.”

Vance has largely opposed American intervention abroad. While in the US Senate and before Trump appointed him as his running mate, Vance cited Trump’s lack of foreign military entanglement as part of the reason he supported him for president in the 2024 campaign.

Trump says Iran would have taken control of the Middle East if it had not acted

“If I don’t strike them first, they will strike our allies first. I believe in the information and the beliefs,” the president told reporters, before adding: “They would have taken over the Middle East.”

“Based on information and belief” is a phrase often used in legal settings, including affidavits.

It is usually meant to indicate that a statement is based on indirect information, but that the speaker also believes it to be true.

Trump was charged in four criminal cases, and also faced civil charges related to his business practices, before returning to the White House. He’s no stranger to being in court or talking to lawyers.

Trump claims Iran has access to Tomahawk missiles when asked about school strike

The president wrongly claimed that Iran had access to a US Tomahawk cruise missile, the weapon likely used to strike a girls’ school in Iran, killing 165 people.

Asked whether the United States would accept responsibility for the strike, Trump said the cruise missile, made by US defense company Raytheon, is “sold and used by other countries” and that Iran “also has some Tomahawk missiles.”

“Whether it’s Iran or someone else… the tomahawk is a very generic type,” he added.

While Raytheon sells the missile to allied countries such as Japan and Australia, there is no evidence to suggest that Iran has ever gotten its hands on a cruise missile.

When asked why he was the only person in his administration to make this claim, Trump replied: “Because I don’t know enough about it.” He added: “Whatever the report shows, I am willing to live with this report.”