President Trump said on Wednesday that the war in Iran was “not a big thing” for the United States in his latest attempt to play down the effects of the war by pointing to the economy.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump asserted that the conflict, which has killed at least 13 U.S. service members and an estimated 1,700 Iranian civilians, drained military stockpiles, and inflicted financial pain on working-class Americans, was going better than expected. He maintained he was “very proud” of what he called a “detour” to Iran..
“We have the highest stock market in history with a military conflict going on, or a war — some people call it war, some people call it a military — it’s not a big thing for us,” Mr. Trump said. “We have a great military. It’s not a big thing for us.”
Mr. Trump went on to falsely claim that “costs were coming down” for consumers, and cited “great financial people” who he said had assured him that because 401Ks were rising, “everybody’s making a lot of money.”
It was the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to flip the narrative on a conflict that he said would lead to a quick and decisive victory after the U.S. joined a bombing campaign with Israel on Feb. 28. But the war has instead dragged on for more than three months, with no end in sight.
As its goals have grown more elusive, Mr. Trump has become more dismissive of the conflict’s unpopularity, and the economic pains that it is causing Americans at gas pumps and grocery stores.
Last month, Mr. Trump said he did not think about Americans’ financial situations when considering whether to end the conflict. Then this week, in a 1 a.m. social media post, Mr. Trump chastised politicians who were “chirping” about the war.
“Just sit back and relax,” he wrote, “it will all work out well in the end — It always does!”
In the last few weeks, the president has signaled that the United States and Iran were close to signing a framework for peace. Last week, he even announced he was heading into the Situation Room to “to make a final determination” on a deal.
No such determination was made.
Then on Monday, he acknowledged that he found the negotiations with Iranian leaders “very boring,”
Mr. Trump has given the Iranians numerous deadlines to sign a peace deal, insisting that any agreement must assure that they never have a nuclear weapon. But he has given conflicting statements about where negotiations stand.
Asked about his announcement last week that the U.S. and Iran would go in and remove Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, Mr. Trump also asserted that Iran had agreed to the condition, but called the operation “very overrated.”
“I’m the one that overrated it,” he said. “To me it was important, to other people it’s not important.”
In another instance, Mr. Trump said in the same breath that Iran had agreed to several conditions, including not to develop a nuclear weapon, before backtracking.
“We’re going to have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon — that’s what we’ve done — and they’ve agreed to it, by the way,” he said.
He then said he meant “if they sign the agreement, they will have agreed to ‘we will not have a nuclear weapon or bomb, we will not develop one, we will not buy one.’”
He added that recent negotiations had been about whether they would buy a nuclear weapon, rather than develop one, and declared that we “in the end we got that,” before adding “if they sign the paper.”
“In theory they’re pretty close to signing a paper,” he added. “We’ve actually gotten along with them very well.”
When it came to discussing next steps, Mr. Trump, who has vacillated between threatening annihilation if the Iranians do not meet his demands and waiting them out, was vague. He signaled that the military was ready for a long haul.
“We could go another two, three weeks and just wipe everybody out,” he said. “I’d rather not do that. Very easy to do. They’re ready to do it. They want to do it. They want to do it. But if we can get something down in writing, which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I’d like to do that.”
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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