The World Cup returns to the U.S. on Friday for the first time in 32 years after Trump thrrew himself into winning the bid to co-host the soccer tourney during his first term. He’ll be feted Sunday, his 80th birthday, during a UFC fight night that’s expected to draw thousands to the White House grounds. Hours after the final bout, he’s scheduled to jet off to the G& summit in the French Alps for talks with several world leaders he’s been beefing with over war and tariffs.
But Trump set expectations even higher for the coming days when he announced Thursday that the U.S. and Iran could come to terms this weekend on an agreement that would set the pathway to end the three-month-old war. He said he plans to dispatch Vice President JD Vance to the signing of the agreement.
Trump has said on several occasions in recent weeks that he's on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry told state television following Trump's comments that mediators were active but nothing had been finalized to end the conflict.
Still, Trump is claiming this time might be different.
The breakthrough comes after he threatened to escalate the conflict with more intense bombardment of Iran and by seizing control of Iran’s oil industry, including capturing Iran's vital Kharg Island oil facility. The president's threats followed back-and-forth strikes this week that had rendered a temporary ceasefire agreed to in early April all but meaningless.
“They’ve taken a pounding like very few people could take," Trump said in an Oval Office exchange with reporters as he explained why he was confident that, this time, a deal would come through. "And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do.”
Trump offered scant details about the settlement he says is taking shape, but told reporters that he believed the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to have been wounded on the first day of the war and has not been seen in public since, is ready to sign off on the deal.
Trump is billing the deal as “very strong," though he says it remains “a little conceptual," and says it would ensure Iran is blocked from ever developing a nuclear weapon.
