Donald Trump Iran update: US President says ‘point of no return’ reached, reveals nuclear threat and end goal

US President Donald Trump has given a major update on Operation Epic Fury, revealing new details about nuclear attack threats and his goal in Iran, something he says is near.

Mr Trump claimed that the majority of Iran’s capabilities have now been destroyed, adding that 51 Iranian Navy ships had now been destroyed.

“We continue to target Iran’s drone and missile capabilities. Their drones are way down,” Mr Trump said.

“Their drone manufacturing’s been hit starting today. We know all of the places they manufacture their drone and they are being hit one after another.

“Their missile capabilities are down to about 10 per cent, maybe less. We’re also hitting where they make missiles and where they deliver missiles to date.

“We’ve struck over 5000 targets to date. We’ve left some of the most important targets for later in case we need to do it. If we hit them, it’s going to take many years for them to be rebuilt.”

‘Point of no return’

The US President said he felt Iran was close to attacking the US with ballistic missiles, while attempting to make and potentially use nuclear weapons, even after Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025.

On 22 June 2025, Mr Trump directed the execution of Operation Midnight Hammer, which saw B2 bombers drop 14 30,000-pound GBU Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) on three key Iranian sites.

The attack targeted the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, three sites that Iran was using to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

Mr Trump said if that attack had not occurred, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon within weeks.

Since then, Iran, according to US intelligence, was attempting to make a nuclear weapon at another site. The New York Times reported on the weekend that Iran had managed to access the three sites that were struck, which still had undamaged components to continue progress in creating a nuclear weapon.

Mr Trump claimed Iran wanted to attack the US and take over the Middle East.

“The situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return, and the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion... I thought they were going to attack us,” Mr Trump said.

“If you notice, they did something that was very stupid, very foolish. They (Iran) attacked their neighbours.

“Their neighbours came onto our side and started attacking them (Iran).”

Mr Trump said all he was doing now was keeping a promise he made in 2015 when he announced he would run for the US presidency: “I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons”.

Despite the effectiveness of Operation Midnight Hammer, Mr Trump said that the Iranian regime’s might was intense.

“Look at the number of missiles they were able to buy and make in the last six months,” Mr Trump said.

“They were looking to take over the Middle East. We got their first.

“The Middle East are very lucky I was president instead of somebody else.”

Trump’s only vision for Iran’s future

Speaking about how Iran can go forward after Operation Epic Furry, Mr Trump said the only acceptable future was one where Iran chooses peace.

“Everything they had is gone, even their leadership,” Mr Trump said.

“They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no air defence and they have no leadership. It’s all gone.

“We’re going to go further.”

Mr Trump said he “didn’t want to say” that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, the son of the killed Iranian Supreme Leader, had a target on his back, however, claimed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was basically the same as Ali Khamenei.

“I was disappointed. We think it’s going to lead to more of the same problem for the country,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump confirmed he preferred the idea of someone internal taking over leadership of the country, citing what occurred in Iraq when all of the leadership was fired: “They turned into ISIS.”

How much further will the US go?

The US President said that “enough”, in terms of winning in Operation Epic Fury, meant “where they’re not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon.

“When I can see they will no longer have any capacity, for a very long time, to develop weaponry that could be used against the United State, Israel or any of our allies, we have great allies in the Middle East.”

Mr Trump said that Operation Epic Fury was ahead of schedule, saying that the war would be over “soon”.