In a stunning departure from decades of established US foreign policy, President Donald Trump revealed that a forthcoming peace agreement with Iran will likely allow the regime to retain its conventional ballistic missiles, arguing that a complete ban is unrealistic because 'they got to have some.'

'What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them?' Trump said during the briefing. 'Missiles aren't the problem. They hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet.'

A reporter pressed Trump, saying one of the goals of Epic Fury was to destroy Iran's ballistic missiles.

'What are they keeping? They have less than other nations now. The rest of them are underground. They can't even get them out. Are you going to let the 91 million people starve to death?' Trump said in defense. 

For generations, every American administration has maintained a strict 'red line' against Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. 

The issue was a big criticism in President Barack Obama's 2015 JCPOA, which explicitly excluded missiles because Iran refused to negotiate them - a move that hawks, including Trump himself during his first term, heavily criticized. 

Trump ultimately withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, citing the missile program as 'unfinished business.' and subsequently launched a maximum pressure campaign that demanded total missile restrictions.

However, speaking to reporters about a new memorandum of understanding, Trump broke not only with his predecessors but with his own historical stance by conceding that Iran would retain a missile arsenal.

This is a break in long standing policy. For over forty years, US policy toward Iran has centered on a strict red line: no ballistic missiles.

When Obama left missiles out of the 2015 nuclear deal, hawks - including Trump - slammed it as a fatal flaw. Trump even tore up the JCPOA in 2018 to pursue a 'maximum pressure' strategy that explicitly demanded an end to Iran's missile program.

His sudden concession that Iran 'has to have' them isn't just a break from establishment bipartisan policy; it's a U-turn on his own first-term record.