Marc Champion, Columnist

Did Trump Just Say He’s at War For PR Reasons?

May 15, 2026 at 12:19 PM UTC

Marc Champion is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East. He was previously Istanbul bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal.

US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping visit the Temple of Heaven on May 14, 2026 in Beijing, China.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowskil/Getty Images AsiaPac

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While in China, Donald Trump said the pile of 440 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium that was at the heart of his justification for going to war with Iran is, in fact, safely under 24/7 surveillance by nine cameras and no one is getting close to it. In fact, although he’d prefer to get the material out of the country altogether, he said that would be “more for public relations than it is for anything else.”

Wait, what?