UN Ambassador Mike Waltz says Trump is not starting a war, but finishing it

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz argued to Kristen Welker on Sunday that President Donald Trump did not start a war with Iran, he was just ending it.

When Waltz was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program whether the United States was really at war with Iran, he suggested that the conflict actually began in 1979 under then-President Jimmy Carter.

Waltz was previously the Trump administration’s national security adviser but was removed from that position on May 1, 2025. reportedly coordinated While Trump was still pursuing peaceful negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke behind the president’s back about possible military options for Iran, followed by the SignalGate controversy.

Welker, who shared the clips in which Trump describes the current military actions in Iran as “war”, repeated his question and said, “As you know, words are important. Do you, that front management, define this as a war against Iran?”

“I define it as, as I just said, Iran is at war with us,” Waltz replied.

He went on to argue that Trump’s goal is not to start a war, but to “end a war.”

“President Trump is putting an end to this,” he replied. “On the issue of the War Powers Act, which every administration has deemed unconstitutional, I leave that up to the lawyers and those dealing with Congress. However, Secretary Rubio has been there every day and every week for the last several months to appropriately brief congressional leaders.”

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UN Ambassador Mike Waltz argued that President Donald Trump did not start a new war with Iran, but merely ended the war that started with the Islamic revolution in 1979. (White House via X Account/Anadolu/Contributor/Getty Images via Getty Images)

Changing the direction of the conversation, he continued: “I would like to ask you, you know, who believes that they are being attacked, soldiers that have been buried for many years as a result of Iranian attacks and proxy attacks, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and more than 600 American soldiers in Beirut in 1983 and in Iraq in those years, so we need to take a step back and look at how many billions, how much. How much treasure time, administration after administration, has spent dealing with this issue.”

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NBC anchor Kristen Welker repeatedly pressed UN Ambassador Mike Waltz on whether President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran truly constitute a war. (William B. Plowman/NBC)

“President Trump prioritized diplomacy both last year and this year. It was clear that the Iranians were not negotiating in good faith and had no intention of backing down on their nuclear intentions,” he said. “We’re trying to protect it with a massive phalanx and a shield of ballistic missiles that they’re quadrupling their production every month, and finally President Trump said enough is enough.”

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