'Nobody knows who's leading': Trump says the destruction of the Iranian Army is hindering an agreement with Tehran

President Donald Trump stated on Thursday that the destruction of Iran's military infrastructure and the deaths of a significant portion of its leadership have complicated his administration's efforts to reach an agreement with the theocratic regime, though he maintained that the United States is "doing very well" in its confrontation with Tehran. "We're doing very well with Iran," Trump told his former attorney Michael Cohen in an excerpt from an interview on his 77 WABC radio show, which will be released in full next Sunday.

The Republican president also reiterated that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon remains the central objective of the U.S. campaign against Tehran, commenting: "I think the public sees what we're doing because Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. We have to make a journey to the Middle East because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon."

When explaining how the loss of senior officials has ended up complicating the negotiations, Trump said: "The Navy's gone, the Air Force is gone, the leadership is gone. Part of the problem is so many of the leaders are gone. It's not easy to make a deal. Nobody knows who's leading." Similarly, the president described the Iranian leadership as "crazy" and highlighted the role of B-2 bombers in the U.S. military campaign, attributing to their use the prevention of what he described as a potentially devastating attack against Israel and the rest of the region. "They would have wiped out Israel. They would have wiped out the Middle East," he added.

Trump's remarks came a day after he announced a new economic crackdown on Iran, in which he also warned that any nation that allows its financial institutions, companies, or government entities to assist the regime in Tehran will face "tremendous economic consequences." The president made the announcement via a post on Truth Social, in which he stated that Iran has squandered the opportunities his administration has offered it to reach an agreement and that, for that reason, the United States will launch an unprecedented campaign of "economic warfare and isolation."