President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that Iran “hasn’t seen anything yet” as he defended U.S. military operations against Tehran, saying the country would need decades to recover from what he described as damage from American strikes.

Speaking to reporters during the meeting, Trump said Iran had been “degraded” and that the United States had significantly damaged the country’s military capabilities.

“It would take 20 to 25 years” for Iran to rebuild, Trump said, adding that even if the United States were to withdraw immediately (a move he said would not happen) Iran would still face decades of recovery.

Trump reiterated that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon” and criticized the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated during former President Barack Obama’s administration, arguing that the deal contributed to the current crisis. Trump also referred to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” while discussing the agreement and argued that the former president’s nuclear deal helped create the conditions that led to the current conflict.

“If I didn’t terminate that deal, Israel wouldn’t exist,” Trump said, adding that in his view, several other countries would also have faced existential threats.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Trump during the appearance and compared Iran’s nuclear ambitions to North Korea’s development of weapons capabilities. Hegseth said Iran had been given “every opportunity to negotiate” and argued that Trump was the only president willing to directly confront Tehran.

“Every night we degrade them further and further,” Hegseth said.

Trump also said that U.S. forces had prevented attacks from reaching their targets, saying “no one got through the blockade” and comparing it to “a steel wall.” He said the United States had “the best equipment in the world” and that American forces had “stopped almost everything.”

Throughout the appearance, Trump criticized media coverage of his administration’s foreign policy and argued that certain accomplishments had not received sufficient attention.

Trump cited casualties in Iran, saying, “They are killing over 52,000 people, no one talks about it.” He did not provide additional details or a source for the figure during the press conference.

Trump also referenced previous U.S. military actions, saying that the United States had gone to war with Venezuela and that the conflict “lasted one day.” He said the administration had achieved successes that he believed were overlooked by the media.

Later in the press conference, Trump was asked about attacks targeting a federal building in New York City that involved ICE. Trump said his administration had removed thousands of people with criminal records and repeated a statistic that “2 percent of the people cause 91 percent of the crime.” He did not provide evidence for the figure during the exchange.

Trump returned repeatedly to the message that the United States’ campaign against Iran was ongoing, saying the country had “been given every opportunity” and warning that Iran had not yet experienced the full extent of U.S. action.