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Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 2, 2026

August 2, 2026 · The White House · 0:07:53

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions aboard Air Force One on August 2, 2026, and disclosed that a major strike on Iran had been called off at the allies’ request. “I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by UAE, by Qatar, and by Iran,” he said. “We were all set to go… it would have been a massive attack.” The reason for the request, on his telling: “they think there’s a deal. There’s a deal on Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear — or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran.”

“We’re holding it. We’ll just see. We can do it anytime we want,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll see if it’s true. I’d love to do that. Save a lot of lives.” Asked whether Iran faces a deadline, he answered, “We’ll just see how it is. We’re ready to go anytime we want… I’m not looking to kill people, because people die. A lot of people die, and we don’t want that.” He said he had put the choice to the Saudi leadership directly: “Would you rather have us do this or not? They said we would much prefer a deal as opposed to an attack.”

Why it matters

This is the primary-source account of the August 2026 Iran decision point: a prepared strike held at the request of three Gulf partners and Iran itself, and a negotiation — Hormuz first, then denuclearization — announced with a start time. It precedes the August 4 LAX gaggle, where the President reported the talks progressing, and anchors the foreign-policy file the scoreboard tracks.

Scoreboard watch

This gaggle carries scoreboard-watch claims: negotiations with Iran beginning the afternoon of August 3, 2026, on a Hormuz deal followed by denuclearization, with the strike force held ready. The scoreboard will check the talks’ occurrence and terms against the official readouts as they publish.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Joint Base Andrews, Aug. 2, 2026” (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the gaggle aboard Air Force One). All characterizations as stated by the President in the gaggle.