"The U.S. did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war on America since 1979," U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized during the Veterans Day national commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery, adding that “this should have been resolved a long time ago.”
As the U.S. president stated at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater, “the United States won the war with Iran,” emphasizing that “it’s simply a matter of when we want to end it; we want to ensure a complete victory, not a 93% victory.”
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Trump on Iran: America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war on America since 1979. This should have been taken care of a long time ago. https://t.co/z0oVylxxT2
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 11, 2026
Trump on Iran War: We won. We want to make sure we have a total victory, not a 93% victory. https://t.co/d4DTeWZZls
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 11, 2026
Furthermore, Trump said the war would end “soon,” adding that “it will take them 25 years to rebuild what we’ve destroyed, and I hope we won’t have to destroy anything else in that country.”
Trump on Iran: Hopefully, we won’t have to destroy any more of that country. https://t.co/sJyGZrUbd7
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 11, 2026
Comparing Venezuela to the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
Standing a short distance from the graves of Americans killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Trump cited the duration and casualty toll of each of these wars and said that the country “gained very little from any of them.” He contrasted these wars with the U.S. operation in Venezuela to oust dictator Nicolás Maduro last January, which, he said, was completed “in 48 minutes.”
He presented this as a “war” that his government had “won” and boasted about the petrodollars the U.S. supposedly received thanks to its privileged access to Venezuelan oil. “We’re raking in billions and billions of dollars from oil and all kinds of other goods. Soon it will reach hundreds of billions,” Trump told the crowd. “No one has ever seen anything like this, and we’ve already covered the cost of the war many, many times over.” “To the victor go the spoils, as they used to say,” he added. “But you can say that again about us under this leadership.”
Toward the end of his speech, Trump referred to the approximately 77-meter-tall gilded arch that his administration plans to build between the Lincoln Memorial and the cemetery where he was speaking. “Soon we will dedicate a magnificent triumphal arch in honor of our veterans, and this is being done in honor of our great veterans and our great armed forces. They’ve been waiting for this for 200 years.” The project is being challenged in court, and critics argue that it will disrupt the capital’s historic sightlines.
The president did not explicitly mention last week’s midterm elections. The closest he came was in the final minute of his speech at the podium. “We’re doing things that no one ever thought were possible, and yes, we’ll face some minor setbacks. We’ll handle them very well,” he said.
Earlier, he stated: “I will never allow anyone to harm our country. We will not allow anyone to harm or destroy our country with a wicked, foolish, and horrific ideology. We will not let that happen, and everyone knows what I mean.”
Source: Proto Thema
