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3. Trump Says Iran Wants to Talk: The Atlantic

One day after U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and escalated tensions across the Middle East, former President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to negotiate and that he plans to engage with them.

“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump told The Atlantic. 

Trump indicated that the recent U.S.-led strikes killed many of the Iranian officials previously involved in negotiations. “Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big—that was a big hit,” he said.

The president also commented on the reaction of the Iranian people. He pointed to celebrations in the streets of Iran and gatherings of expatriate Iranians in U.S. cities like Los Angeles and New York, interpreting them as signs of support for regime change. “That is going to happen. You are seeing that, and I think it’s gonna happen. A lot of people are extremely happy over there and in Los Angeles and in many other places,” he said.

Trump had earlier called on the Iranian population to rise up against their government once the bombing campaign ended. “Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond,” he said yesterday morning in a video posted on social media. “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.”

Asked whether the U.S. might prolong military operations to support a potential uprising, Trump was noncommittal. “I have to look at the situation at the time it happens. You can’t give an answer to that question,” he said.

Trump expressed confidence in the operation’s impact on the region and on U.S. interests, including oil markets. “This could have been a huge price increase with respect to oil, if things went wrong. So we’ll see what happens,” he said.

The comments came shortly before the U.S. military announced its first casualties in the campaign: three service members killed and five seriously wounded. Trump dismissed the risk to Americans at home and said the strikes would not derail his administration’s broader economic agenda. 

On the decision to strike Iran, Trump framed the campaign as long overdue. “People have wanted to do it for 47 years. They’ve killed people for 47 years, and now it’s reversed on them,” he said.