Trump Tells Axios He’s Now ‘Low Keying it’ on Iran After Weeks of Threats: ‘It Will Work Out. It Always Works Out.’

(Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)

President Donald Trump told Axios’s Barak Ravid on Sunday that he’s now “low keying it” when it comes to negotiations with Iran, and that he’s certain it will all “work out” in his favor.

Trump indicated he was set to restart major combat operations only a week ago, but the president now says he’s willing to let Iran ride out the economic discomfort because the Islamic State “is in very bad shape” and can’t pay its troops.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump told Ravid. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump said of the up and down negotiations.

Ravid added that Trump claimed U.S. consumers are feeling less pain because oil is down to slightly over $75 a barrel.

Trump’s comments about “semi-negotiating” came after Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News Saturday, “I do think that we’ve made some progress over the last few days.”

Vance also compared the Iran war to a “game.”

“I try to remind people that we’re really in the middle of the game here,” Vance told Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday in America. “This thing is not over. It’s obviously not at the beginning. We’re in the middle of the game, and we’re applying a whole host of tools, diplomatic, economic, military tools, to ensure that we get the best outcome for the American people. I feel quite confident we will get there, but we’re still a bit in the middle of game.”

Also, Saturday, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, said the U.S. must correct “its behavior” before the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.

Zolghadr laid out provisions in a statement, demanding that the U.S. must “never threaten nor insult Iran in any language” and must “permanently end the war against Iran and Iran’s allies in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq.”

Other demands included lifting the naval blockade, withdrawing military forces, and paying full reparations.

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