As U.S. and Israeli warplanes pound the radical Iranian theocratic regime for a fourth consecutive day, a 46-year-old interview has resurfaced showing President Donald Trump calling for U.S. military intervention in Iran long before he ever held public office.
In an October 1980 NBC interview — what could be Trump’s earliest recorded statement on foreign policy to a national audience — the then-34-year-old New York real estate developer was blunt about the Iran hostage crisis, in which the Islamic Republic held 52 American diplomats and citizens captive for 444 days.
“The Iranian situation is a case in point,” Trump said. “That they hold our hostages is just absolutely and totally ridiculous. That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages, to my way of thinking, is a horror, and I don’t think they’d do it with other countries. I honestly don’t think they’d do it with other countries.”
“Obviously, you’re advocating that we should have gone in there with troops et cetera and brought our boys out,” the interviewer pressed back.
“I absolutely feel that, yes. I don’t think there’s any question in it, there’s no question in my mind,” Trump responds.
“I think right now we’d be an oil-rich nation and I believe that we should have done it and I’m very disappointed that we didn’t do it, and I don’t think anybody would have held us in abeyance. I don’t think anybody would have been angry with us and we had every right to do it at the time. I think we’ve lost the opportunity.”
Take a look –
When it comes to striking Iran, Donald Trump has been consistent for 47 years. Look at this clip from October 1980 when he called for military intervention to free American hostages taken during the Iranian Revolution. Also FYI: during his 2016,2020 and 2024 presidential… pic.twitter.com/Jui93rwRry
— David Brody (@DBrodyReports) March 2, 2026
Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli air campaign launched February 28, reportedly struck over 1,200 targets inside Iran in its opening 48 hours alone. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the first salvo, along with more than 40 senior Iranian government and military officials.
Iran has retaliated with indiscriminate missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, hitting U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan. At least four American service members have been killed. Trump has said the campaign could last four to five weeks.
At a Pentagon briefing Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation is “just the beginning.” He confirmed 11 Iranian naval vessels have been destroyed and said the campaign’s mission is to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities and ballistic missile arsenal.
“Turns out the regime who chanted ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ was gifted death from America and death from Israel,” Hegseth said.
The 1980 interview was not an outlier. In 1987, Trump warned that “Iran’s bullying of America” had gone too far, and that U.S. forces should seize their oil fields. In 1988, he told The Guardian he’d wipe out Iran’s massive Kharg Island oil hub if a single shot was fired at American forces amid tensions.
“One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I’d do a number on Kharg Island,” he said.
“The mothership of terrorism is sinking,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Meet the Press on Sunday. “The captain is dead. The largest state sponsor of terrorism — Iran — is close to collapsing. Well done, President Trump.”