Trump Calls Iran Conflict 'Small Potatoes,' Warns of Strike on Pickaxe Mountain

US President Donald Trump has described the ongoing military campaign against Iran as a "small potatoes" conflict, downplaying its scale even as he threatened fresh strikes on a key nuclear-related site. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said the operation was not a major war for the United States, echoing remarks made a day earlier by Vice President JD Vance, who had declined to label the hostilities a "war."

"I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing," Trump said, noting that the US is conducting intermittent strikes. He acknowledged the human cost, stating, "We lost 18 great souls," while contrasting that figure with the tens of thousands of American deaths in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Trump also reiterated his administration's primary objective in the campaign, which has now lasted over five months: preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. "Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn't be standing here very long," he warned.

The President then turned his attention to Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground site near Iran's damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility. The location hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes. Trump stated that the US could target the site "very soon" if intelligence detects suspicious activity there.

"We know everybody that's moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that's moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard," Trump said, asserting that US intelligence is closely monitoring the area.