President Trump has suggested teaming up with Iran for a “joint venture” less than a day after threatening to obliterate the entire country.
Speaking to ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, the 79-year-old president was asked whether he would accept Tehran charging a toll for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the two-week ceasefire deal.
“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it—also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
The U.S. and Iran agreed to a temporary ceasefire deal on Tuesday night that saw Tehran agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
The deal was put in place less than two hours before the 8 p.m. deadline Trump had imposed. The president had threatened to not only target Iran’s bridges and power plants but also warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if a deal was not agreed upon before the deadline.
The deranged threats from the 79-year-old resulted in calls for Trump to be removed from office using the 25th Amendment, a process that can be triggered if a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president believe a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. Questions about the president’s mental wellness had already been mounting after he posted a foul-mouthed tirade on Truth Social on Easter Sunday.
His erratic messaging on Iran seems unlikely to assuage those concerns. After days of threatening potential war crimes, Trump is now openly pondering whether the U.S. can go into business in Iran, boasting on social media late Tuesday that “big money will be made.”
Under the ceasefire deal, the U.S. has agreed to end its military strikes against Iran, with Trump insisting that “we have already met and exceeded all military objectives” in the deeply unpopular conflict.
The U.S. also issued a 10-point plan arrangement for the ceasefire, which reportedly included the “complete cessation” of the war on Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, opening the Strait of Hormuz—which will help end the worldwide oil crisis the conflict has caused—and the U.S. providing compensation for reconstruction costs to Iran.
Trump also claimed an agreement had been reached on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change! There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday.
“It is now, and has been, under very exacting Satellite Surveillance (Space Force!). Nothing has been touched from the date of attack. We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran.”
