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Trump Warns on Iran’s ‘Sinister’ Nuclear Aims in State of Union Speech

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Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address. — Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address.
Photographer: Kenny Holston/The New York Times

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By Richard Frost and Emma Clark

February 25, 2026 at 10:30 AM UTC

In a nearly two-hour speech that was full of bombast, confrontation and ceremony, US President Donald Trump had serious words of warning about Iran.

Iranian officials are “again pursuing their sinister ambitions” after US airstrikes devastated the country’s nuclear program last year, Trump said in his State of the Union address.