Trump says U.S. may strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site

President Donald Trump said the United States may attack Iran’s deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, keeping a conventional military option open while saying he would not use nuclear weapons and does not expect to send American ground troops. Trump made the comments in a Newsmax interview aired Thursday, October 15, 2026.

Reuters reported the statement Friday, and Anadolu Agency and Fox News separately carried Trump’s comments. The president did not announce that an attack had been ordered, identify a timetable or disclose an approved operational plan. His remarks amount to a renewed threat against the site, not confirmation that a strike is imminent.

What Trump said

Trump said the administration was looking at Pickaxe Mountain and might have to act there. He said U.S. forces would “knock it out fast.” Asked about nuclear weapons, he said they were unnecessary. Asked whether an operation would involve troops on the ground, he said he did not see that happening.

Those answers narrow the options Trump described publicly, but they do not establish which conventional weapon or delivery system the Pentagon might use. Reports have discussed the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, commonly called the “mother of all bombs,” as one possibility under consideration. Public reporting has not established that Trump selected that weapon or that it could destroy the full underground complex.

A difficult underground target

Pickaxe Mountain is the name used in reporting for a suspected Iranian nuclear facility constructed beneath a mountain near the Natanz complex. Its depth and geology make it a substantially more difficult target than an exposed building. Assessments of its exact layout, status and role rely partly on intelligence and satellite analysis that has not been fully released to the public.

That uncertainty matters when evaluating Trump’s promise of a rapid result. A strike could damage entrances, power supplies or surface support infrastructure without proving that every underground chamber had been destroyed. Independent verification would require imagery, monitoring and access that may not be available immediately after an attack.

Trump’s statement also comes amid continuing U.S.-Iran hostilities and intermittent diplomatic contacts. He said Iran had asked for attacks to stop and claimed negotiations were taking place. Tehran’s position and the scope of any talks were not independently confirmed in the reports reviewed for this article. A threat made during negotiations can be intended as leverage, but it can also raise the risk of miscalculation.

What is—and is not—decided

The clearest new development is Trump’s direct acknowledgment that Pickaxe Mountain remains under consideration. His rejection of a nuclear strike and skepticism about ground troops are significant limits on his public position. They do not rule out airstrikes, stand-off weapons, cyber operations or later changes in policy.

No formal White House directive, Pentagon strike order or congressional authorization specific to Pickaxe Mountain accompanied the interview. Trump also did not provide evidence that Iran is producing a nuclear weapon at the site. Any claim about the facility’s current activity remains separate from the policy question of whether attacking it would be lawful, effective or likely to widen the war.

For now, the statement should be read as a presidential threat backed by an asserted conventional option. Whether it becomes an operation will depend on military planning, intelligence, diplomacy and a decision that the administration has not publicly announced.

Sources and image credit

Reporting and interview coverage: Reuters, Anadolu Agency, Fox News and Newsmax via MSN.

Image: President Donald Trump at a White House science summit in Washington on October 8, 2026, photographed by Daniel Torok for the White House; Wikimedia Commons source record. The federal-government photograph is marked public domain. It was center-cropped and resized to 1600×900 with no added overlay.