VIDEO: Trump Says “We May Hit Pickaxe Very Soon” in Iran Conflict
President Trump again signaled Friday that the United States could strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain “very soon.” The site is located near Iran’s Natanz nuclear complex and is reportedly being watched for nuclear enrichment activity.
Israeli intelligence claims Iran has been rebuilding its nuclear program at the site since last fall. Trump has previously warned that the location could become a target.
The president’s comments came during an exchange with ABC reporter Rachel Scott. Scott asked Trump about Vice President JD Vance’s description of the situation. A day earlier, Vance said, “I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting,” and referred to the situation as a “conflict.”
“Can you explain to the American people if this is not a war? What exactly is it?” Scott asked.
Trump responded, “I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us; it’s not a big thing,” comparing the fighting to the January 3 Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela. He said that operation lasted about one hour.
“We did Venezuela, and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody; in this, we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, we lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people. I would say that it’s intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes,” Trump said.
He also argued that active fighting was not taking place at that moment. Trump said the United States was taking out oil, had strong control of the Strait of Hormuz, and had struck areas around the waterway. He said U.S. forces destroyed radar, aircraft, and other systems that had protected the strait.
Scott then pressed Trump about the 18 service members killed since the beginning of the conflict. She also pointed to what she called record-long deployments involving special forces.
Trump pushed back. “Why is it record long?” he asked. He then added, “How long were we in Vietnam?”
“We’re in five months now, and you know what we did in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. That’s what we did. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here very long,” Trump continued.
Trump then returned to the possibility of a strike on Pickaxe Mountain. “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. We’ve stopped them from having. We may hit pickaxe very soon,” he said, adding that the United States now leads in space technology and that “We know everybody that’s moving at pickaxe.”
“We know everybody that’s moving everywhere, all over Iran, and if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard.”
Trump also compared the current losses with those from Vietnam and Afghanistan. He criticized former President Joe Biden over the 13 service members killed during the Kabul airport attack, saying the airport should not have been used and that Bagram Airfield would have been a better choice. Trump also cited severe injuries suffered by others in the attack.
Trump first threatened in July to strike Pickaxe Mountain. At the time, he told reporters, “We’ll be hitting that area very, probably pretty soon. And there’s not a thing they can do about it, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.”