President Trump, who campaigned on a central promise to keep the United States out of overseas wars, denied in an interview aired on Sunday that he’d ever made the pledge.
“I didn’t guarantee no war,” Mr. Trump said in a lengthy interview with Kristen Welker, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” taped during his trip to Wisconsin on Friday. “Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?”
Speaking about the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, he continued: “So when you say I promised, I didn’t promise anything. I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months.”
During the appearance, the president also defended a proposed fund to compensate his supporters who feel they’ve been unfairly prosecuted.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys have said in court in recent days that the fund is not moving forward, but the president has continued to raise the idea of compensation for people who claim to be victims of federal overreach.
“If they get it approved, that’s great,” Mr. Trump said, an apparent reference to congressional Republicans, who have balked at the idea but have also declined to introduce legislation banning the creation of the pot of taxpayer money. “If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
Mr. Trump eventually ended the wide-ranging interview after being repeatedly pressed by Ms. Welker about claiming, without evidence, that recent elections in California were rigged.
Mr. Trump, who is now more than three months into a war with Iran that he began without congressional approval, is facing growing pressure to end the costly conflict. In recent weeks, voters have voiced frustration over rising fuel costs along with the overall price tag of the war, which grew to around $29 billion in May.
Mr. Trump has lately also faced more scrutiny for his intense focus on his various Washington construction projects, including his request for congressional approval of $1 billion in funding for his proposed White House ballroom.
In the interview, Mr. Trump repeated the promise he has made in recent days: “It’s all coming down as soon as the war’s over,” he said, referencing rising fuel costs.
But Mr. Trump again gave vague answers when Ms. Welker pressed him about the status of negotiations to end the war in Iran, and he offered praise to Iranian negotiators as “more rational” and “very smart.”
And though Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that the conflict was nearly complete, Mr. Trump did not commit to pulling some of the 50,000 troops deployed to the Middle East.
“It costs us very little to keep them there,” Mr. Trump said. “I would say it would be foolhardy to do that because maybe we may use them. It’s unlikely. But I think we’ll keep them there until such time as we have a completion.”
The president also did not say how the United States plans to remove highly enriched uranium from heavily secured underground bunkers, as Mr. Trump has said he would do to prevent Tehran from using the material to build a nuclear bomb. He suggested that if no deal is reached with Iran to end the war, the U.S. military would continue fighting and then would go in for the uranium.
Mr. Trump expressed frustration that he had been criticized for not bringing an end to the conflict, and pointed out that the Vietnam War lasted much longer.
“Listen, Kristen,” Mr. Trump said, “we’re there for a few months. And the threat is largely over. Soon, it will be over.”
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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