Trump: Iran ‘better get smart soon’
President Trump early Wednesday warned the Iranian regime that it “better get smart soon” as negotiations over a peace deal have largely stalled between the two sides.
“Iran can’t get their act together,” Trump wrote on Truth Social . “They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”
The president also posted an AI-generated image of himself, donning sunglasses and carrying a machine gun, with explosions going off in the background. The caption of the image reads, “No more Mr. Nice Guy!”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Trump said Iran “informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse’” and that it wants the U.S. Navy to open the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as possible.”
He did not elaborate on who from the Iranian government told him that.
The U.S. Navy has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports for more than two weeks , stopping some ships from entering the key oil-transporting waterway during that time. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps initially restricted shipping in the strait in response to the initial wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes in late February — nearly 60 days ago.
The closure has rocked the oil industry and sent gas prices in the U.S. soaring to more than $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022.
Gas prices rose more than 5 cents from Tuesday to Wednesday, to nearly $4.23, according to AAA . That is the highest mark since April 2022 , when the national average peaked at $4.11 in the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump over the weekend decided against sending special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to Pakistan for a second round of peace talks with Iranian officials. Officials from Tehran had declined to meet with the U.S. delegation directly.
The president met with his national security team on Monday, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Iran’s latest proposal to end the war that same day. That plan would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz but offers no concessions on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future, if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Rubio told Trey Yingst of Fox News .
“That fundamental issue still has to be confronted,” he later said. “That still remains the core issue here.”
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