Signs emerge Trump ready to end Iran war as pressure mounts over Hormuz

Early signs emerged Monday that the Trump administration is signaling it wants to wind down the war with Iran, as pressure from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz tightens its grip on the global economy.

But conflicting accounts over whether any talks are taking place between the U.S. and Iran to reach any kind of deal to end the fighting continued to pour out of Washington and Tehran.

President Trump told reporters traveling with him on a trip to Memphis that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in touch with Iranian counterparts over the weekend, but declined to say with whom, insisting that he didn’t want them to be killed. He said they were not speaking to the new supreme leader, a hard-line cleric who is the son of the late ayatollah.

“We’ve had very strong talks,” the president told reporters Monday. “They went, I would say, perfectly. I would say if they carry through with that it’ll end that problem, that conflict.” 

But the tune out of Tehran sounded much different. After The Jerusalem Post reported U.S. officials were in touch with the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, he denied such talks were taking place.

“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Ghalibaf said on X.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country launched the joint strikes with the U.S. last month, said Monday that Trump “believes there is an opportunity” to reach an agreement with Iran. He was vague on what such an agreement might look like, but the wording marks a shift in rhetoric around the war, which is proving unpopular for Trump within the U.S. and his own MAGA base.

“It would be hard to overestimate the amount of political pressure he’s under domestically,” said one former Trump administration official, who noted it would be a “huge loss” to end the war with the strait still largely closed off to oil tankers.

“I think left to his own devices he’d leave, but he can’t leave,” said the former Trump administration official. “He cannot leave with the straits closed.”

Messages have been delivered between the U.S. and Iran through intermediaries, a regional source told The Hill, but they could not confirm if there have been direct talks. 

Trump has thus far been unable to form a coalition of traditional U.S. allies to help police the Strait of Hormuz in order to allow oil to be transported, resulting in him publicly criticizing NATO member countries and other allies. 

Monday’s announcement marks an abrupt about-face from Trump’s threat on Saturday to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear facilities unless they reopened the Strait of Hormuz. 

Tehran, in turn, threatened to target U.S. energy and infrastructure in the Gulf states, resulting in oil prices spiking. 

Oil prices surged over the weekend, with the global benchmark Brent crude rising 1.69 percent to $114.09 a barrel. U.S. crude increased 2 percent to $100.29. 

However, oil prices fell rafter Trump announced a five-day pause in his plans early Monday morning before markets opened in the U.S. 

Cale Brown, a former State Department principal deputy spokesperson in the first Trump administration, described Trump’s announcement Monday as maintaining “leverage for the future rather than signaling a change in position.” 

“Hitting oil and gas infrastructure was never integral to our stated goals of reducing the threat posed by Iran, which we’ve been accomplishing by hitting their naval, missile, and drone assets and the production capacity to regenerate them,” Brown, the chair of Polaris National Security, said. 

“Trump has long expressed his hope that an Iran no longer bent on the West’s destruction might prosper, and to do that, the country will need its energy infrastructure,” he continued. “He also recognizes that long-term damage to Iran’s oil and gas production will put persistent pressure on energy prices, a side effect of this conflict he’s gone to lengths to minimize.”

Still, public opinion has not been on Trump’s side for the duration of the conflict. A CBS News poll released Sunday found 57 percent of surveyed Americans believed the conflict with Iran was going “very or somewhat badly” for the U.S., while 43 percent said it is going “very or somewhat well. 

The same poll found that 92 percent of respondents said it was important for the U.S. to “end the conflict as quickly as possible.” 

Only 40 percent of surveyed Americans said they approved of the U.S. taking military action against Iran, down from 44 percent on March 3, while 60 percent said they disapproved of the conflict. Fifty-six percent of Americans had previously said they disapproved of the conflict on March 3. 

When asked about the current public opinion polling on the war, a White House official noted that support for the operation in Iran “is not wavering one bit.”

The same CBS News poll showed that 84 percent of all Republicans said they approved of military action against Iran, while 92 percent of MAGA Republicans and 70 percent of non-MAGA Republicans said the same. 

The official also cited a Washington Post poll from March 4 that showed 42 percent of respondents, a plurality, support the military campaign, up from 39 percent when the strikes began. 

“What matters most to the American people is having a Commander-in-Chief who eliminates threats and keeps them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing with the ongoing successful Operation Epic Fury,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said, noting Trump’s campaign promises to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

“The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people,” she said. 

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