Breaking down Trump’s new ‘drug factories’ claim about Iranian nuclear sites

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has said a lot of things about the three Iranian nuclear facilities the US attacked last year . Until Thursday night, he had never publicly claimed these facilities were also “drug factories.”

Trump’s comments at a rally in Oklahoma bewildered not only average Americans but also experts on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Wow…That one is new to me,” James Acton , co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a Friday email after CNN sent him a video of Trump’s remarks. “To my knowledge, the Fordow facility , whose destruction Trump is describing, was not being used for drug production and neither had I previously heard any allegation (credible or otherwise) that it was.”

The White House refused to offer any explanation for Trump’s comments when CNN inquired on Friday. But if you watch the full video of Trump’s speech, an obvious theory quickly emerges.

It appears likely that he made a simple mistake, and then – as he has for years – doubled down instead of correcting himself. For a president who has declared himself “right about everything,” even an admission of minor verbal error is usually a bridge too far.

Trump made the claim about “drug factories” near the end of a long day. He had traveled from the White House to an event in Texas, then arrived about two hours late for the rally in Oklahoma after bad weather forced him to drive rather than fly.

While discussing his efforts to combat Iran, Trump spoke of the stealth bombers that attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in the June 2025 operation codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer.” Some of the planes dropped bombs aimed at Fordow’s ventilation shafts .

Trump said , “And then at 1 o’clock in the morning with no moon, dark as can be, these unbelievable machines led by the most incredible pilots in the world, they unloaded; every single bomb went right down air chutes into this, uh, drug factories, really. That’s what they were doing – they were nuclear and drug. They were doing drugs, but they were doing the nuclear. But these drug factories-slash-nuclear factories were hit so hard.”

Why did Trump say this? We might never know for sure. But just before he started talking about Iran, he had been talking about his attempts to thwart illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean and about the US military operation that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump’s initial remark about bombs hitting Iranian “uh, drug factories, really” seemed likely to be a slip triggered by the preceding remarks about illegal drugs and Venezuela.

Trump has long refused to acknowledge even insignificant speaking stumbles, instead preferring to act as if he had really meant to say the mistaken thing he said – even something as insignificant as whether a federal agent he praised in a 2018 address is nicknamed “CJ” or “DJ.” Here, instead of just amending the “drug factories” assertion, he ad-libbed three additional lines reiterating the assertion.

The White House, which tends to declare that “President Trump is right” even in response to questions about some of Trump’s most inaccurate remarks, wouldn’t offer a defense of this one. “Refer to POTUS’ comments,” an aide said in an unsigned Friday email.

Acton, trying to think of a “possible explanation,” said it’s possible Trump remembered how Iran has sometimes pointed out that legal drugs known as “ radiopharmaceuticals ,” which are used to diagnose and treat certain medical conditions, “are produced in nuclear reactors.”

But Acton then noted that the Fordow facility Trump very much seemed to be talking about Thursday is an enrichment center with no reactor, “so, even under this (generous) interpretation, Trump’s statement would be inaccurate.” He said it’s more plausible Trump simply made a mistake.

And, of course, it would be highly misleading for Trump to go from talking about the trafficking of illegal drugs in the Caribbean to talking about Iran operating “drug factories” in its nuclear facilities without ever explaining he was now referring to the production of lawful drugs.

So Trump having merely slipped up is actually the kindest possible defense of his “drug factories” remarks. Not that Trump or his team are willing to use it.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

唐纳德·特朗普总统就美国去年袭击的三座伊朗核设施发表过许多言论。但直到周四晚，他才首次公开声称这些设施也是“毒品工厂”。

特朗普在俄克拉荷马州的一次集会上发表的言论不仅令普通美国民众感到困惑，也令伊朗核计划专家感到困惑。

“哇……这我还是第一次听说，”卡内基国际和平基金会核政策项目联合主任詹姆斯·阿克顿在周五收到CNN发给他的特朗普讲话视频后，在一封电子邮件中写道。“据我所知，特朗普所描述的福尔多核设施的摧毁并非用于毒品生产，而且我之前也从未听说过任何（可信的或不可信的）指控。”

周五，CNN就特朗普的言论向白宫询问时，白宫拒绝做出任何解释。但如果你观看特朗普演讲的完整视频，一个显而易见的推测很快就会浮出水面。

他似乎犯了一个简单的错误，然后——就像他多年来一直做的那样——非但没有纠正错误，反而变本加厉。对于一位自诩“事事正确”的总统来说，哪怕承认一个小小的口误，通常也是难以接受的。

特朗普在漫长的一天即将结束时发表了有关“毒品工厂”的言论。他先是从白宫前往德克萨斯州参加一个活动，然后由于恶劣天气迫使他开车而不是乘飞机，导致他比原计划晚了大约两个小时才抵达俄克拉荷马州的集会现场。

在谈到他打击伊朗的努力时，特朗普提到了2025年6月代号为“午夜铁锤行动”的隐形轰炸机袭击伊朗核设施的行动。其中一些飞机向福尔多核设施的通风井投掷了炸弹。

特朗普说：“然后凌晨一点，没有月亮，一片漆黑，这些不可思议的机器，由世界上最杰出的飞行员驾驶，投放了炸弹；每一枚炸弹都顺着空投口落入了这些，呃，实际上是毒品工厂。他们当时正在做的就是——既是核武器又是毒品工厂。他们一方面在制造毒品，一方面也在进行核打击。但这些毒品工厂兼核工厂遭受了重创。”

特朗普为什么会说出这样的话？我们或许永远无法确切得知。但在他开始谈论伊朗之前，他还在谈论他打击加勒比地区非法毒品走私的努力，以及美国军事行动抓获时任委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗的情况。特朗普最初关于轰炸伊朗“呃，毒品工厂”的言论，很可能是他之前关于非法毒品和委内瑞拉的言论引发的口误。

长期以来，特朗普一直拒绝承认哪怕是微不足道的口误，反而宁愿装作自己真的有意说出那些错误的话——哪怕是像他在2018年演讲中称赞的那位联邦探员的绰号是“CJ”还是“DJ”这样无关紧要的小事。这一次，他非但没有修改关于“毒品工厂”的说法，反而即兴发挥了三句话，重申了这一说法。

白宫一贯秉持“特朗普总统是对的”的原则，即便面对质疑，即便特朗普的某些言论并不准确，他们也拒绝为特朗普的言论辩护。一位助手在周五一封未署名的电子邮件中写道：“请参考总统的讲话。”

阿克顿试图想出一个“可能的解释”，他说，特朗普可能记得伊朗有时会指出，被称为“放射性药物”的合法药物（用于诊断和治疗某些疾病）“是在核反应堆中生产的”。

但阿克顿随后指出，特朗普周四似乎一直在谈论的福多设施是一个没有反应堆的浓缩铀中心，“所以，即使按照这种（宽泛的）解释，特朗普的说法也是不准确的。” 他说，更有可能的是，特朗普只是犯了一个错误。

当然，如果特朗普从谈论加勒比海地区的非法毒品贩运，到谈论伊朗在其核设施中运营“毒品工厂”，却从未解释他现在指的是合法毒品的生产，那将是极具误导性的。

因此，说特朗普只是失言，实际上是对他“毒品工厂”言论最委婉的辩解。当然，特朗普和他的团队并不愿意接受这种说法。