In Iran, Trump is both escalating and deescalating
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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Myles Parks. I cover voting.
I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House. And I'm Greg Myrie.
I cover national security. And we are recording this at 1.13 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 25th. And today on the show, we're nearing the one-month mark of the war in Iran. Franco, President Trump started the week with a post on social media that said, quote, very good and productive conversations were going on with Iran, alluding to the fact that negotiations seem to be ongoing to move towards an end to the conflict. What more can you tell us about that?
Yeah, it came as Trump announced that he was postponing attacks on Iran power plants for five days. And he said at the time that his team, you know, the envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in touch with a, quote, top person in the regime, though he would not say who it was. And Miles, it really felt like kind of like a turning point in all this. You know, there were potentially moving into this new chapter of the war. That's certainly seeing what Trump was signaling and moving toward this kind of negotiating ending. You know, Trump before said that he was not ready to agree to anything. But here he was saying that they were very willing to make a deal, that the U.S. was willing to make a deal.
And that he said actually that if he was a betting man, that he would bet on the deal happening. Yesterday, of course, he spoke again about this top person actually delivering on a promise. He called it a big present. He didn't say exactly what that was, but he said it involved oil and gas. And he also said that was a sign, at least, that they were dealing with the right person. I do want to note one more thing, though, that Iran officially is dismissing the idea that they are negotiating anything directly with the U.S. and actually would not negotiate with Witkoff and Kushner because they felt like those two misled them in the lead up to the war.
It does feel like it takes two to tango, Greg. And I don't know, doesn't that seem like if you have one side saying we're negotiating, things are going really well, but then Iran is denying that this is happening at all, what are we supposed to read from that?
Yeah, that they're far apart. And I think that's the only realistic thing you can say right now. I think Trump has hit a point where he feels he's going to have to consider negotiations that the current plan on the battlefield, another day or two or three of bombing is not going to make Iran capitulate. So it is significant that Trump is talking about negotiations. But Iran... may have time on its side now. It sees the Strait of Hormuz closed, and it is in no hurry to bring an end to the war if it doesn't get some of the things that it wants.
What are the latest developments in the Iran conflict?
And one of those is a guarantee that the United States will not wage war again against it and try to topple the regime.
So, Franco, political pressure is clearly building on President Trump and kind of all the different dominoes that are falling from this war going on weeks and weeks. I just drove past a gas station in D.C. this week where gas was priced over $5.
How is Trump signaling a shift in negotiations with Iran?
It was the most expensive station I've driven by in D.C. It's consistently overpriced. I think I know which one you're talking about. Exactly. I'm not going to name names. But is it fair to say that there is starting to become, I guess, global financial pressure for President Trump to kind of change his tune on this?
Yeah, I think there's no doubt about that. And I think Trump clearly knows that as well. And I think you see that in the rhetoric from him over the past couple of weeks, particularly when it has to deal with the Strait of Hormuz, whether it's
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