President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out using a nuclear weapon against Iran, despite his earlier threats to “completely destroy” Iranian civilization. “No, I wouldn’t use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it?” he added. “Nobody should never use a nuclear weapon.”
Donald Trump made the remarks after he threatened on 7 April that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back,” before he later softened his stance into a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance warned during negotiations that the US was ready to escalate attacks using previously unused weapons, though the White House denied that this implied nuclear threats, as Vance had pushed Iran for greater concessions on its contested nuclear program.
Iran Denies Nuclear Ambitions
Consequently, Iran maintains it does not seek nuclear weapons, and the UN’s nuclear watchdog confirmed no imminent atomic threat existed before the conflict. The US remains the only nation to have deployed nuclear weapons in war, devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing over 214,000 people. Israel, widely believed to possess nuclear arms, neither confirms nor denies their existence.
Trump’s blanket rejection of nuclear use conflicts with longstanding US nuclear doctrine, which reserves the right to deploy such weapons. While Trump has called to end a US moratorium on nuclear testing, citing alleged secret tests by China and Russia, former President Barack Obama advocated for eventual global nuclear disarmament.
However, his administration upheld deterrence as a core strategy, as the US has also rejected proposals to pledge “no first use” of nuclear weapons in conflicts.
