US President Donald Trump has rejected criticism that the ongoing conflict with Iran contradicts his campaign promise of “no new wars,” arguing that he never guaranteed his presidency would be free of military conflicts.

In an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said he had not promised there would be no wars if he returned to office.

“First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said.

The president also defended a now-abandoned $1.8 billion fund that was intended to compensate political allies and repeated his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in California’s prolonged vote-counting process following last week’s primary election.

Trump, who campaigned in 2024 portraying himself as a leader who started “no new wars” and accusing Democratic rivals of being warmongers, maintained that the conflict with Iran does not amount to an extended military engagement.

“I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months,” he said, referring to the conflict with Iran that began on February 28.

He argued that US actions were necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, saying he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a service.”

At the same time, Trump reiterated his claim that US strikes last year had “obliterated” Iranian nuclear facilities, despite also citing the need to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Trump further defended his decision during his first term to withdraw from the nuclear agreement negotiated under former President Barack Obama, a deal he has long criticized while promising to secure a better alternative.

“It takes years to do these things,” Trump said.