President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Iran wanted to make a deal with the U.S., but reiterated that the decision to end the ongoing war and escalating tensions remains in Washington’s control.
Trump Reaffirms U.S. Control Over Iran Deal
The White House’s Rapid Response handle posted a clip of Trump addressing the media before heading into Air Force One in Texas on the social media platform X. Trump was asked about the ongoing situation with Iran.
“It’s a question of when do I want to end it [the war],” Trump said. He added that Iran has wanted to “make a deal,” but said they like “tapping it along.”
Trump then opined that maybe Tehran was waiting for the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections in November. However, he warned against it. “That’s not gonna help them,” he said.
“We’ve decimated their military, we’ve decimated their finances, they have no money,” he said. He was also asked if Washington was planning additional strikes, to which Trump said that he was not at liberty to discuss it, but “anything’s possible,” he added.
Notably, on Sunday, Trump was asked by the media if the U.S. was mulling strikes against Iran, to which he responded that there would be no strikes.
Earlier this month, Iran’s Security Chief Mohsen Rezaee had said that there would be no talks with the Trump administration and no enriched uranium would leave the country until the U.S. agrees to Iran’s conditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump Touts Oil from Venezuela, Floats 51st State Idea
The Rapid Response handle also posted a clip of Trump addressing a rally in Texas, where he said that the U.S. had secured the first shipment of 1 million barrels of oil coming from Venezuela, calling it the “greatest oil victory in history.”
Trump then said that the win over Venezuela gives the U.S. control over “the biggest part of the world’s oil supply,” adding that the U.S. had “more oil than any other country, even any countries combined.”
The President then said that the oil would be refined in Texas, while also floating the idea of making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state.
“Let’s make it the 51st state. And instead of a president, we’ll have an election for a governor. How about that?” Trump said at the rally.
At the time of writing this article, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Futures contracts ending in December were up 1.63% to $101.53, while Brent futures contracts ending in January 2027 were up 1.68% to $111.25 at press time.
ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (NYSE:UCO) ETF rose 2.33% to $66.40 during overnight trading on Tuesday. The United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) ETF also jumped 1.44% to $166.24 during overnight trading.
Trump’s Oil Windfall
Trump has been under criticism from Democratic Party leaders after a report emerged that his positions in oil companies could be worth upwards of $81 million since the end of last year.
This comes as the Iran war has continued to result in hiked energy costs across the U.S. and windfall profits for oil companies like Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), ExxonMobil Holdings Corp (NYSE:XOM) and more.
The President also touted that oil companies had made hundreds of billions of dollars in profits since the war with Iran kicked off. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA) data, the national average price of gas on Tuesday was $4.2661/gallon.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
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