Donald Trump threatened to bomb a close U.S. ally in the Middle East on Wednesday as he struggled to reach a deal to end his war with Iran, which has now dragged on for nearly three months.
Trump, 79, was answering questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House when he made the shocking remark.
The president was asked whether he would accept a short-term deal in which Iran and Oman would share control of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump rejected the proposal and insisted the crucial waterway needed to be open to all. He then made the head-turning threat.
“Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” Trump said. “They understand that. They’ll be fine.”
It was not clear whether the president had misspoken and perhaps meant Iran, which he has repeatedly threatened to bomb for months, or if he intended to take on the U.S. ally in the region with the jaw-dropping remark.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for clarification.
It comes after there were reports that Iran was in talks with Oman over a permanent toll system for the Strait.
The president insisted on Wednesday that the U.S. was “doing very well” in talks with Iran, despite the deal remaining elusive and the president blowing past the multiple timelines he’s set for himself.
“They are starting to give us the things that they have to give us, and if they do, that’s great,” Trump said vaguely.
“And if they won’t, then the man on my left is going to finish them off,” Trump said, acknowledging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, seated next to him, whom he had earlier said, “loves war.”
The president claimed that the Strait needed to be opened immediately, but he argued that any deal that is reached is going to be “perfect.”
“I didn’t do this to get a crummy agreement,” Trump complained.
He went on to throw a further wrench into negotiations by suggesting that other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, should be required to join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 diplomatic agreement that normalized relations between Israel and Arab nations.
“I’m not sure we should make the deal if they don’t sign. You want to know the truth. If they don’t sign to join the Abraham Accords, I don’t know... so, we’re, you know, requesting strongly that they join, and it’ll be great,” the president said.
