Asked if he believed it was time to formally end the U.S.-Iran ceasefire that is nominally still in place, Trump said, “Let’s say I knew exactly what you’re asking … and I sort of do. Why would I tell you?”
He also said that the U.S.’ NATO allies “should come in and help us out” because they rely on the oil that flows through the Hormuz Strait more than the U.S. does.
“We don’t need it, we have a lot of oil,” he said.
But when asked if he has reached out to NATO to participate in reopening the strait, Trump said, “They would if I wanted them to, but I’m not sure I want them to.”
“We don’t need them. We don’t need NATO. They were very, very weak and very sad, what they said,” Trump said. “They said, ‘We’ll help you as soon as the war is over.'”
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Hello.
EAMON JAVERS
Hello, Mr. President. It’s Eamon Javers here with CNBC. How are you, sir?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Hello, Eamon. What’s going on, Eamon?
EAMON JAVERS
Well, I see that markets are moving on this idea that the Iranians say they’re not going to negotiate anymore, and I wonder if you can confirm?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
What does that mean they are moving?
EAMON JAVERS
Well the oil market, oil prices have moved dramatically more than 8% when that news crossed. So the idea is that oil is going to get more expensive if the war is not going to come to an end, because the Iranians won’t negotiate. Have the Iranians told you that they’re not going to negotiate, or what is your sense?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
No, they haven’t. They told you so, they only want to tell the fake news, Eamon. They only want to tell CNN, which, and you don’t get any more fake than your company. Let’s see I’m just looking at the prices, and oil went up 7%.
EAMON JAVERS
7%, yeah.
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Well, that’s part of being a negotiator, but they don’t have any cards, because a lot of people would be very happy. Stock market is just down a little bit. Yeah, it’s alright.
EAMON JAVERS
Do you think the negotiations are over now, or is this a bluff?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
I don’t care if they’re over, honestly. I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less. If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring. They were giving us what we needed, but I think I think they handled the negotiations poorly. It took too long. I thought they were tapping us along that’s all. Yeah, they were.
EAMON JAVERS
You think they were stalling for time?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Yeah. I thought that, yeah, I did.
EAMON JAVERS
So, what’s the way forward now? Then, how do you get the strait open now?
PRESIDENT TRUMP
I’d say there’s about now, well, the strait is already open. If you think all you have to do is take a look at the many boats that have gone out of there over the last week. You do know that, you know, boats have been leaving, and we have, and we have the blockade, we blockade them, they blockaded the strait, and then we blockaded them, and our blockade is a lot tougher than…
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