Trump’s expanding – While U.S. officials say negotiations with Iran will continue “for a few days,” President Donald Trump has also ordered additional “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran and argued that any peace deal should require multiple regional states to normalize relat
On Saturday. negotiators were reportedly close to a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift the US blockade on Iran. On Sunday, President Donald Trump told his negotiators “not to rush” into a deal. By Monday, the United States launched a new round of what it called “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran.
The White House message, as the days began stacking up, was that talks would run for “another few days,” with an insistence that a deal remains likely. Still, officials would not say a return to full-scale war has been taken off the table.
Then Trump widened the scope again—this time from a rambling Truth Social post on Monday morning, where he said it “should be mandatory” that Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey sign on to the Abraham Accords as part of any peace deal normalizing relations with Israel.
That idea collided almost immediately with politics on the ground. Saudi-Israeli cooperation against Iran has long been known in the region. but the international outcry over the war in Gaza has made it politically untenable for those countries to openly embrace Israel. It’s unclear how hard Trump will press the requirement at this stage of negotiations—but bringing new demands now risks irritating partners who would have to sell normalization to their own publics.
No deal has been signed yet. even though the underlying dynamics of the conflict haven’t shifted much since Iran and the United States signed the current ceasefire agreement in early April. And the pattern from recent weeks—expanding demands rather than narrowing them—has a blunt implication: Trump appears to be operating as if he’s not losing.
Before the war began. Trump told Tucker Carlson that despite predictions that attacking Iran could destroy his presidency. he was confident everything would be okay “because it always is.” The war has not unfolded as smoothly as promised. but Trump’s posture in these talks suggests he may still believe he holds the upper hand—and that time can still be leveraged.
Some of the most alarming economic forecasts tied to closing the Strait of Hormuz have not come true in the way critics warned. Oil prices have been hovering around $100 a barrel, and Americans have felt the impact at the pump. But energy experts had predicted $200 per barrel oil by now if the strait were not opened. The reporting here points to two main reasons for the discrepancy: the US and other non-Gulf producers have been able to export more oil than many anticipated. and China has slashed its imports. relying on substantial reserves.
Even with the possibility of future pain. Trump may see a temporary reprieve as proof he’s not facing a tipping point that forces a rapid exit. There are global concerns about jet fuel supplies ahead of summer travel season. and the effect of a global fertilizer shortage on the planting season won’t be felt for months. For now, the US economy is described as not in full-blown crisis mode. The White House appears willing to keep pressing for what Trump believes is a bigger outcome rather than rushing toward a smaller one.
Public opinion has not been uniform. The war is broadly unpopular, and a large majority of Americans say it has raised their cost of living. Still. a recent poll by the Eurasia Group’s Institute for Global Affairs found that 73 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the situation. As long as US troops are not being killed—and none have been since the ceasefire began—and economic turmoil stays within manageable limits. Trump may continue to assume pressure is on his side.
Iran’s incentives, however, may pull in the opposite direction. Iran’s current leaders, who believe they can absorb more pain than Americans and are even less sensitive to public opinion, likely see the same standoff as tolerable. For both sides, that’s a recipe for stalemate.
In a sign of shifting priorities, Trump appears to have narrowed his demands for the war in Iran. In earlier talks prior to the war. he was pushing for caps on Iran’s ballistic missile program and for limiting support for regional proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. Now, Trump says the “one thing” he thinks about is preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Even so, getting a deal that meets the White House’s apparent main condition remains hard. The Iranians have reportedly agreed in principle to dilute or dispose of their stockpile of highly enriched uranium. but the White House is continuing to insist that the stockpile itself be turned over to the United States. “No dust, no deal,” one official told Fox News, referencing Trump’s description of the stockpile as “nuclear dust.”.
That requirement became even more difficult to square last week after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a directive saying the uranium should remain on Iranian soil. The negotiation structure being discussed, according to most reports, starts a process of nuclear negotiations over a 60-day period. The clock would at least lower immediate temperatures—but it leaves the central dispute unresolved. and it’s not hard to imagine tensions returning during the review.
Trump’s comments linking the Abraham Accords to resolving the Iran war point to something larger than a narrowly defined nuclear agreement. He has long expressed confidence that he can bring peace across the Middle East as a region—not just end individual conflicts. When he announced his plan for ending the war in Gaza last September. he described it as a great day in the “history of civilization” that could bring “eternal peace to the Middle East.” That outcome did not materialize for Gaza. but the ambition behind the rhetoric still seems to be shaping how he approaches negotiations now.
For the moment, the situation reads like a prolonged gamble. The costs for Trump may not be high enough that he feels compelled to end the war quickly. But they may be high enough that he feels he needs a big win to justify the time and risk—either a deal that demonstrably exceeds what Barack Obama negotiated in 2015 or something more theatrical: the pursuit of “eternal peace.”.
Trump Iran talks Strait of Hormuz self-defense strikes Abraham Accords nuclear dust Mojtaba Khamenei Gaza war costs US blockade ceasefire early April