Trump says he has to ‘stop’ killing Iranian leaders to know who US is negotiating with

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he needs to stop killing Iranian leaders to determine who the US is negotiating with, while reiterating his position that Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

“I gotta stop” killing Iranian leaders, Trump told a campaign rally in Georgia, “because I gotta figure out who the hell we're negotiating with.”

“They don't have any airplanes, no ships, no anything, no leaders. Level one leader is gone, level two leader is gone,” he said, reiterating his account of the US destruction of Iran’s military and leadership.

Trump also defended his 2018 decision to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reached under then-President Barack Obama, saying it had been done at a critical moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“I terminated one of the worst deals ever made, Barack Hussein Obama's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or as some people call it, the Iran nuclear deal, which was a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran. I terminated it, luckily, just in time,” he said.

“We obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury,” he said, referring to military operations in 2025 and then this February to May.

“We defeated them militarily, financially, and otherwise. We have to make sure that they never, ever have a nuclear weapon,” Trump added.

Trump says US could strike Iran ‘tomorrow’ or reach ‘big, beautiful’ deal

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said Washington could strike Iran as soon as “tomorrow,” or reach a “big, beautiful” agreement with Tehran, amid reports that he's weighing renewed attacks on the Islamic Republic.

“We’re thinking about doing it, and maybe tomorrow,” Trump told reporters when asked how far along he was in considering a possible attack.

“Do you really think I’m going to tell you if I’m going to do it?” he added.

Trump said Iran could still avoid further military action by reaching an agreement with the US, noting that “they want to make a deal, but the problem is, will they hold the deal?”

Trump argued that his goal was to prevent Iran from eventually developing a nuclear weapon, saying an earlier US operation involving B-2 bombers would not have been enough to guarantee a lasting outcome.

“I’ve got to make it permanent,” he said. “That’s the only reason I’m doing it.”

The president also claimed that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz had increased compared with before the war began, without providing figures during his remarks.

He offered no firm decision on what comes next, instead presenting both military action and negotiations as possible outcomes.

“I may have to finish it off, or maybe they’ll make a deal,” Trump said. “But I’m not sure. Either way, we win.”

Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, intelligence memo warns

Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, and lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached "advanced stages", a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen by Reuters.

The alert from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton came after Washington scaled back staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia earlier this week in response to intensified attacks by Houthi forces.

Those attacks on one front of the nearly eight-month-old regional conflict triggered by the Iran war have coincided with a rise in attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier this month, sources told Reuters Iran was preparing a more forceful response if the United States resumes large-scale military attacks on its territory.

"Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel," Clayton wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a message dated October 23.

"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," he added.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe was also copied in on the unclassified memo, which was first reported by Axios.