President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States has won its war with Iran but will not end it until it secures "a total victory, not a 93% victory."
Trump made the remarks in his Veterans Day address at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "We won. We want to make sure we have a total victory, not a 93% victory," he said. "It's just a question of when we want to end it."
He said America did not start the war. "America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war on America since 1979," Trump said. "They should have been taken care of a long time ago. And it was just about time somebody fought back. All of us fought back. We fought back, and we won."
Trump said 18 American service members had died in the conflict, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28, 2026, and said it would take Iran 25 years to rebuild what American strikes destroyed. "Hopefully, we won't have to destroy any more of that country," he said. He repeated his vow that Tehran would never get a nuclear weapon.
The war has not formally ended, and no settlement has been reached. The Pentagon's database had recorded 23 U.S. deaths in the conflict as of late October, according to Stars and Stripes — a higher figure than the 18 Trump cited in his address.
The United States and Iran have meanwhile been talking through Qatari mediators in Doha. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said an agreement with Washington was possible, but accused the United States of making excessive demands and said the ball was now in Washington's court.