Trump Says Iran Still Wants to Make Deal, ‘Losing in Every Way’

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the Iranian regime has told his administration it still wants to make a deal with Washington but indicated he hasn’t made a decision yet.

“Right now, they want to make a deal,” Trump told NewsNation, adding that Tehran is losing both financially and militarily against the United States.

“If the deal’s not a correct deal, then I wouldn’t even think about it,” he said. “But right now, they want to make a deal because they’re losing in every way.”

The remarks come nearly seven months after the United States launched initial strikes alongside Israel against Iran in late February.

An Iranian official said through state-run media Friday that it attacked a Togo-flagged oil tanker as it was trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that serves worldwide oil markets. The UK Maritime Trade Organization, associated with the British military, said a tanker was struck by a projectile on Friday.

The Iranian regime has launched strikes and issued threats against commercial vessels in the Hormuz Strait, which it said is necessary to resist the U.S. military operation. The United States has responded by attacking Iranian targets in and around the waterway.

Earlier this week, the U.S. military’s Central Command said Tuesday that it opened fire and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week that were trying to steal a drone ship in the waters off Iran.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, the command spokesman, said the Iranian boats “recently attempted to take possession of a U.S. unmanned surface vessel” but failed after the military “forcefully responded.”

In August, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would put more economic pressure on the Iranian regime by issuing new sanctions, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month that the United States is “level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations. We know who they are. They know who they are.” He said that when sanctions fall on Tehran, Iranian officials “will have no one to blame but themselves.”

On Friday, the United States confirmed that a core Iranian delegation will be allowed to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September.

“The delegation will be under travel restrictions and will face prohibitions on the purchase of luxury and other goods per our policy,” the State Department spokesperson said. “The delegation is smaller than last year.”

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a Thursday post on X that Iranian officials will be barred from “shopping sprees” in the city.

“While ordinary Iranians endure brutal repression, water and electricity shortages, and soaring inflation, the regime’s officials want to go on shopping sprees in New York. Not on our watch,” he wrote. “We will not let the Iranian regime’s elites exploit [UN General Assembly] for a luxury retail splurge paid for by the Iranian people’s suffering, all while the regime funnels Iran’s wealth to support its terrorist proxies.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.