President Donald Trump has claimed dozens of times over the past two months that a deal with Iran was imminent.
The U.S. and Iran agreed to a fragile ceasefire on April 7, more than a month after Trump greenlit deadly joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tehran and sparked a wider regional conflict.
Even before the ceasefire—which has been repeatedly violated—Trump told reporters on March 23 that the U.S. and Iran had reached “major points of agreement… almost all points of agreement,” during alleged peace talks.
It was the first of 38 times to date that Trump has claimed to be on the verge of a breakthrough with Iran despite an agreement being nowhere to be seen, according to a new analysis by CNN.
The number includes all the times the president has said directly in social media posts, public appearances, and phone calls with journalists that a deal was either imminent or that Iran was desperate to reach out.
Just a day ago, the 79-year-old president was adamant that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, only to walk back the claim after Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu defied his pleas not to retaliate against Iran for its latest wave of strikes.
At this point, it’s become a familiar refrain.
On March 25, Trump began insisting that Iran wanted to “make a deal so badly” and was “begging to make a deal,” CNN reported.
Four days later, he told reporters on Air Force One, “I do see a deal in Iran, yeah.”
On April 6, he said negotiators had been “very close to a deal” before a setback, and the next day, he announced a two-week ceasefire that would give the two sides time to reach an agreement.
A week later, he told Fox Business, “I think it’s close to over, I view it as very close to over,” a claim he continued to repeat over the next several days.
After two more weeks of saying he expected a deal “in the next day or two,” on April 30 he insisted that Iran was still “dying to make a deal.”
During the first two weeks of May, Trump was a little more cautious with his promises, but by May 19, he was back to vowing to “end that war very quickly.”
On May 23, he said a deal was “largely negotiated, subject to finalization,” and then on May 28 he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump the two sides were “close to a very good deal,” a vow he repeated on Sunday.
It’s not clear whether Trump keeps repeating the claim because he delusional about his deal-making, trying to reassure the financial markets, or hoping that if he repeats it enough it will come true, according to CNN.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The deeply unpopular war has become a major political liability for Republicans heading into the midterms, as the conflict has choked transport in the Strait of Hormuz, driving up energy and gas pricing and exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.
