Trump Shares Decades-Old Clip of Him Calling for US to ‘Take’ Iran’s Oil

(Photo Credit: ABC)

President Donald Trump said his ideal scenario is for the USA to go in and “take” Iran’s oil on Sunday. And he later showed that the idea had been floating around in his head for decades on Monday by posting a clip of him calling for America to do just that in a 1987 interview with Barbara Walters.

Trump posted a 55-second clip from the feature story on ABC’s 20/20, including the part where he pondered during a speech, “Why couldn’t we go in and take over some of their oil that’s along the sea?”

Walters then asked him about that comment during their sit-down interview.

“How would you do that? Would you send in the Marines? Would you take a chance in war?” Walters asked.

“Let ’em have Iran, you take their oil—” Trump started to say before Walters jumped back in.

“But how?!” the journalist exclaimed.

“How? Barbara, you’re going to have a war by being weak,” Trump told her.

He added a moment later, “the next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations, and I mean grab it and keep it and get back your losses. Because this country has lost plenty because of Iran.”

That interview came eight years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the Iranian Revolution and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The clip Trump shared went viral on X before he posted it himself; you can watch it below:

The president has called for military action even further back than his interview with Walters. Trump said in a 1980 interview he would “absolutely” send troops into Iran to get the hostages, if he were president.

“I don’t think there’s any question” about it, Trump said at the time.

Trump on Sunday told the Financial Times his dream plan for Iran remained the same as it did in 1987.

“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran,” Trump said, “but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,”

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