Trump Says He ‘Got All the Hostages Out,’ Claims Iran Has ‘No Nuclear Capability’ in CBS Interview

President Donald Trump, in a wide-ranging interview with Norah O’Donnell aired Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, discussed a range of domestic and international issues, including Israel, the Gaza ceasefire, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The conversation, recorded at Mar-a-Lago on October 31, featured Trump describing what he called his administration’s achievements across the Middle East and his personal role in securing the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza.

Asked about Israel, O’Donnell began, “You got the remaining Israeli hostages out of Gaza.” Trump replied, “I did.”

O’Donnell then noted that he had also “arranged a ceasefire, however fragile that may be,” and Trump interrupted, “It’s not fragile. It’s a very solid—you know, you hear about Hamas, but Hamas could be taken out immediately if they don’t behave. They know that. If they don’t behave they’re gonna be taken out immediately.”

Pressed on how he could compel Hamas to disarm, Trump answered, “If I want ’em to disarm, I’ll get ’em to disarm very quickly. They’ll be—they’ll be eliminated. They know that.”

He also claimed credit for resolving the hostage crisis completely: “Don’t forget, you said I got the remaining hostages. I got all the hostages out. But I always said the last 10 or 20 are gonna be tough. But we were tough also, and they let ’em all out.”

Trump went on to recount emotional reactions from families, saying, “A lot of the bodies are coming out too. Did you know a lot of the parents—the people that lost their child—they knew they were dead, in some cases. Do you know that they were as anxious or even more anxious of getting their child out, even though they knew it was a body that we were dealing with, than the people that had a living child?”

He added, “You saw yesterday four more just came out. We’re gonna get them out too. They’re buried in many cases. They’re buried under rubble. But we pretty much know where they were. But I didn’t get just the 20 out. I got all of the hostages out.”

When O’Donnell asked if he had pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire and “apologize to Qatar,” Trump said, “Yeah, he’s fine. Look, he’s a wartime prime minister. I worked very well with him. Yeah, I mean, I had to push him a little bit one way or the other. I think I— I did a great job in pushing—he’s a very talented guy. He’s a guy that—has never been pushed before, actually.”

Trump praised Netanyahu but also said Israel’s leader faced unfair treatment: “That’s the kind of person you needed in Israel at the time. It was very important. I don’t think they treat him very well. He’s under trial for some things, and I don’t think they treat him very well. … We’ll be involved in that to help him out a little bit, because I think it’s very unfair.”

Turning to Iran, Trump claimed his administration had neutralized its nuclear capability. “I also stopped—we knocked the hell out of Iran, and then it was time to stop, and we stopped,” he said. “Iran wants to make a deal. They don’t say that, and they probably shouldn’t say—no good deal maker would. But Iran very much wants to make a deal.”

He continued, “The key to Middle East peace—I made Middle East peace. For 3,000 years they couldn’t do it. I did it. And I did it with some very good partners in Israel. But the key to the Middle East peace was knocking the hell out of their potential—nuclear. When we, with those beautiful B-2 bombers—we just ordered 20 brand new ones, the newest and the greatest— when they went in there and they blew the hell out of that, you know, potential nuclear weapons site—there were two of ’em, actually.”

Describing the mission in detail, Trump said, “Every single missile hit every single air shaft. You know, they had to go down an air shaft. Every single one of ’em hit their target. And I remember fake news CNN said, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t as powerful or as good as we thought.’ No, it was much—turned out it was actually better.”

O’Donnell then turned to Saudi Arabia, noting that the Crown Prince was scheduled to visit the White House later in November and had said Riyadh would not join the Abraham Accords without a two-state solution. Trump dismissed that claim: “No. I think he’s gonna join. I think we will have a solution. I don’t know if it’s gonna be two-state. That’s gonna be up to Israel and other people, and me.”

He concluded, “Look, the main thing is you could’ve never had any kind of a deal if you had a nuclear Iran. And you essentially had a nuclear Iran. And I blasted the hell out of ’em.”

When O’Donnell asked, “Are you convinced they have no nuclear capability right now in Iran?” Trump responded, “They have no nuclear capability, no.”