President Trump told an interviewer that "when I first came to office, one of the first meetings I had was at the Pengaton with generals, and they were showing me the Middle East and they had fourteen or fifteen sites where there was nothing but war, problems - every single one of those sites was instigated by Iran. It was Iran military, it was people paid by Iran... they were so strong. I ended the Iran nuclear deal, and actually, I must tell you - I had no idea it was going to be as strong as it was. It totally - the country is devastated from the standpoint of the economy". "I just don't want them to have nuclear weapons", Trump added, "and they can't be threatening us".