In an exchange with a journalist Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump argued that Iran can retain some of its remaining missile capabilities because the United States has already destroyed an estimated 84–85% of its missiles, with the rest buried underground and inaccessible. The comment, reported by Israeli media, adds a new rationale to Trump's recent statements on Iran's missile program — though it does not amount to a confirmed shift in US policy, and the president's earlier remarks this week asserted that other regional powers also possess such weapons.
President Donald Trump, addressing a journalist at the G7 summit on Wednesday evening (21:03 Jerusalem time), restated his position that Iran should be permitted to retain some of its ballistic missiles — this time grounding the argument in an operational assessment: the United States has already destroyed an estimated 84–85% of Iran's missile stockpile, and the remainder are buried underground and inaccessible, according to the exchange reported by Israeli media.
The comment follows a sequence of Trump statements this week at the G7 that have challenged traditional Israeli security axioms. Earlier Wednesday, Trump told reporters that Iran 'must have missiles to some extent because others have them too,' comparing Iran's arsenal to Saudi Arabia's and dismissing advisors who demand total disarmament as 'not particularly smart.' He also argued that Syria's Abu Mohammad al-Julani should handle Hezbollah 'surgically' rather than through the kind of building-level destruction that Trump says Israel employs.
As The Zioneer reported Wednesday evening (19:58 Jerusalem), the president questioned advisors demanding a complete ban on Iranian missiles, arguing that regional balance requires proportional capabilities. A subsequent bulletin (20:37 Jerusalem) noted that Trump's remarks constitute a pattern of statements that appear to challenge longstanding Israeli assumptions on both the Iranian and Lebanese fronts.
The 84–85% figure, cited by Trump in response to a direct question, has not been independently confirmed, and the president's rationale oscillates between operational pragmatism and a balance-of-power framework. No formal policy shift has been announced; the remarks remain a set of evolving on-record observations by the president, reported by a single media channel. Further verification and official clarification are awaited.
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