"I had to make an excursion to stop a very volatile group of people that are smart. The Iranians are very smart people. They're primitive geniuses, but they're smart," Trump said. He went on to claim that if Iran had nuclear weapons, they would have used them against Israel.
"I had to stop them because if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it. And you want to see Bethlehem, let them blow up a couple of cities and some place. They would have blown up Israel if it weren't for me. Israel would not have existed," he remarked.
The American leader went on to provide factually incorrect information that the JCPOA was signed by former US President Barack Obama with Iran, which was a "road to a nuclear weapon". "In my opinion, Israel would no longer be with us. Israel would have been gone years ago had I not done that," he said.
Trump slammed critics
In the same Axios interview, Trump said that he "lost respect" for some "hardliners who demanded" to keep bombing Iran, which has been raging on since February 28. "The sad part is that over the last few days when it looked like we are going to make a deal... I'll be honest with you. I LOST RESPECT for some people. I don't want to mention the names — but, you know, HARDLINERS. 'Oh, you gotta take them out.' Plus, I'm not looking to kill people!" he said.
"I have one primary wish as a president, in terms of people, I never want to be like the late great Herbert Hoover. So this is a kind of thing that could have caused a worldwide depression."
Trump further claimed that for the past two months, the US has been taking out vessels without anyone noticing it. "You know that for the last two months, I have been taking out many ships out there and nobody knew it. You know why they didn't know? Because we knocked out their radar. We knocked out their defensive stuff," he told Axios.
When asked about whether Trump would be able to control Israel from attacking Lebanon, the American president gave an affirmative response. "Yeah, I will be. They have a lot of respect for me. And they do as I say," he remarked.
