US President Donald Trump said that if his negotiators are unable to reach a deal with Tehran, the US could lead strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
"If we don't make a deal, I'll be leading the pack," he said in a Friday interview with TIME Magazine.
He added that while he believed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could face a wider conflict in the Middle East if Iran's nuclear program is attacked, the US would not be "dragged in" because it would help lead strikes.
"You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can't get a deal."
However, Trump told TIME Magazine that he was confident that he could make a deal with the Islamic Republic.
Making a deal with Tehran
"I think we're going to make a deal with Iran. Nobody else could do that," he said.
In the transcript of the interview, Trump added that he blamed the previous administration's policy on Iran for the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
"Iran was broke under Trump, and you know that, he knows that, broke. They had no money, and they told Hamas, we're not giving you any money," he said. "I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal."
"Biden came and he took off all the sanctions, he let China and everybody else buy all the oil, Iran developed $300 billion in cash over a four year period. They started funding terror again, including Hamas. Hamas was out of business. Hezbollah was out of business. Iran had no money under me."
Trump's 100 days in office
The Trump administration plans to commemorate the president's 100-day milestone with a rally in Michigan. The White House intends to highlight his economic vision, ejection of undocumented immigrants, changes to foreign policy, and work by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to purge the federal bureaucracy and cut what it sees as waste.
Celebrating those moves will be part of a broad victory lap around Trump's second-term launch that the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described to reporters as a conservative's fantasy.
"Every morning I wake up, it’s like living in a dreamscape," he said.
While Trump officials laud the speed and breadth of his efforts to remake American society, critics say Trump has trampled on the rights of citizens and non-citizens, alienated allies and threatened U.S. supremacy in the world.
The president has withheld funding from universities for what his administration considers tolerance of anti-Semitic behavior; cut back on transgender rights; and done away with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government and with federal contractors. This has had a broad knock-on effect throughout U.S. society.
The official said there is more to come, with lots of “torpedoes under the water."
That includes more executive action, a hallmark of Trump's first 100 days, which the official said would continue like a "snowball rolling downhill." He said the administration was still working on a travel ban for citizens from multiple countries.
Courts have stymied some of Trump's actions, drawing scorn from his allies and White House rebukes that those judges are thwarting the will of the head of the executive branch and the people who elected him.
While Trump will continue to wage war with the courts and a government bureaucracy that his team views as too bloated and out of line with his world view, another official said he would put more focus in his next 100 days on trade deals and peace talks.
The president launched an all-out trade war on numerous countries this year before putting reciprocal tariffs largely on hold to allow for negotiations with individual nations. His administration hopes to secure agreements within 90 days.
Experts say that is extremely unlikely, noting that Trump has not yet secured a single deal. His rhetoric about talks, particularly with China, has often been at odds with what the other country says is true.
The president will take an extended trip abroad next month, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and continue to push for peace in Russia's war with Ukraine.
Trump had promised to solve that conflict on "Day One," but peace has been elusive. The president conceded on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not want to stop the war.
