President Trump on Monday said the U.S. air attacks on Iran this past weekend were to effectively take out the country's military operations – particularly its "ballistic missile capability" – and stop the leaders of the regime that ran the Middle East country from continuing to sponsor terror attacks outside its borders and acquiring a nuclear weapon. 

"The United States military continues to carry out an historic combat operation in Iran to eliminate the grave threat posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime," Trump said from the White House, in his first live, on-camera remarks since the joint attacks with Israel on Saturday. 

His remarks and rationale for the strikes were in line with those made earlier in the morning by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon.

"We will easily prevail," Trump also said.