President Donald Trump on Thursday revealed, for the first time, why he has faith that Iran is willing to negotiate a peace deal, even as missiles continue to fly across the region.
Iran, he said, allowed eight oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as a show of good faith, and then sent through two more as an apology — collectively, the “present” he teased on Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Well, I guess we're dealing with the right people,’” Trump said during a 90-minute Cabinet meeting, his first since the war with Iran began nearly a month ago.
The White House declined to provide further details about the tankers, which Trump said he believed were flying the Pakistani flag. Trump also did not elaborate on who the “right people” were that the U.S. is talking to.
But its framing as a “present” from Iran to Trump helped bridge the gap between the president’s optimism that a deal could be reached and the reality in the Middle East where Iran, Israel and the United States are still firing barrages of missiles.
That dichotomy ran through the meeting, during which the Cabinet offered its most expansive public defense of the operation yet — while struggling to answer what comes next. While Trump and multiple Cabinet members insisted that Iran was ready to negotiate, the details were sparse and the signals were mixed.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Trump’s “preference is always peace and that we should make that our priority,” while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the United States would continue “negotiating with bombs.” “War is negotiation by other means,” Hegseth added.
The meeting laid bare the dual-track strategy Trump is pursuing as he attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Witkoff outlined, for the first time publicly, the reasons why pre-war diplomacy failed — Iran, he said, refused to give up enrichment, and had enough enriched material to make 11 atomic bombs — and confirmed news reports of the 15-point peace framework the U.S. sent to Iran this week.
The president said he is keeping his options open, noting that he is ready to make a peace but he also might seize Iran’s oil. The war might soon be over but he also wouldn’t rule out sending in troops to confiscate Iran’s uranium.
Yet the meeting offered little clarity on the central question hanging over the conflict — when will the war in Iran end, and what does winning look like. Witkoff declined to share details of the 15-point framework, which he said remains confidential, and Iran continues to dispute that negotiations are even taking place.
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered brief, measured remarks during the meeting. Both made the retrospective case that the war was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, an argument notably focused on justifying the conflict’s beginning rather than charting its end.
The president’s optimism — and his continued insistence that the war will soon come to an end — comes as public opposition to the war is hardening. A recent Fox News poll found that 58 percent of voters oppose military action in Iran, including 64 percent who disapprove of how Trump is handling the U.S.’s relationship with the country, up from 57 percent in January. His overall disapproval rating is now at 59 percent, the highest for either of his terms.
Even as Trump projected confidence about the war’s trajectory, both he and his economic advisers quietly acknowledged the economic toll. Both Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, at moments, reached for the past tense when talking about the economic comeback they said the president ushered in over the last year.
"We had the greatest economy ever," Trump said. "We had the greatest stock market in history. I said, we’re going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit, it’s going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion.”
While Trump did not directly address rising gas prices, which polls show are making Americans increasingly uneasy, he said that suspending the federal gas tax is “something we have in our pocket if we think it’s necessary.” National gas prices are nearing $4 a gallon for the first time since August 2022, AAA reported Thursday, up 10 cents from last week and $1 from this time last month.
The president continued to insist the war was but a “detour” in a broader U.S. economic comeback, one that both he and his top officials insisted was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Iran, meanwhile, has balked at the president’s 15-point plan and floated its own five-point plan, which includes asking for war reparation payments and recognition of Iran sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump floated the possibility that the U.S. might not even want a deal at all.
"They are begging to make a deal, not me," he said. "I don't know if we will be able to do that — I don’t know if we’re willing to do that. They should have done that four weeks ago. They should have done it two years ago, or they should have done it when we first came into office.”
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