Trump says he could not care less if Iran talks collapse
Trump brushed off a collapsing Iran deal as oil prices jumped more than 8%, even as the talks centered on the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear limits.
Donald Trump signaled little concern about the fate of Iran negotiations on Monday, telling CNBC he “couldn’t care less” if the talks broke down and saying the discussions had become “very boring.” But the stakes around the diplomacy were anything but dull: the future of the Strait of Hormuz, the risk of wider conflict, and the price households pay for gasoline all hung on whether Washington and Tehran could keep talking.
Trump’s comments came as Iranian state media reported that Tehran was prepared to suspend indirect negotiations with the United States in response to intensified Israeli military action in Lebanon. The mixed messages did not calm markets. CNBC reported that U.S. crude prices had already spiked more than 8% earlier in the session as the latest tensions rippled through energy trading before easing back.
The White House had spent the past week sending its own conflicting signals. On May 23, Trump said an agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was “largely negotiated,” suggesting a breakthrough was close. By May 29, he said he would make his “final determination” on the deal but stopped short of giving it immediate approval. Later on Monday, he posted on Truth Social that talks were continuing “at a rapid pace,” reinforcing the sense that the diplomatic track was still alive even as he publicly downplayed it.
The framework under discussion is significant far beyond the negotiating table. Reuters reported that it could include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, ending hostilities, unfreezing some Iranian assets, and continuing talks over Iran’s nuclear program. That package would try to cool a three-month-old Iran war while protecting a strategic waterway through which a large share of global energy flows. Trump is also under pressure to bring down U.S. gasoline prices, which makes any disruption in the Gulf a domestic political problem as much as a foreign policy one.
The talks also carry the weight of history. Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear agreement in 2018, a move that background sources say helped drive Iran to accelerate uranium enrichment and restrict International Atomic Energy Agency access. That older rupture is part of the reason these negotiations matter now: they are not just about one ceasefire or one shipment lane, but about whether Washington can still convert hard power into credible diplomacy after years of breakdown.
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