President Donald Trump on Sunday told the Financial Times he wants to take Iran’s oil. On Monday, he posted a video of him saying exactly that — in 1987.
“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the U.S. say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” Trump told FT.
In the resurfaced 1987 clip posted to Truth Social, Trump says, “Why couldn’t we go in and take over some of their oil, which is along the sea?”
Asked by Barbara Walters how he would do it, Trump appeared to have few answers.
“You take their oil,” he said.
“How?” a frustrated Walters pressed.
“You’re gonna have a war by being weak,” Trump retorted.
“How do we go in? What do we do?” Walters, now exasperated, continued to ask.
“You’re going to have a war. And it’s going to start in the Middle East,” was Trump’s response. “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.”
Trump reportedly is sending more troops to the Middle East, and preparing for a possible weeks-long ground invasion, The Washington Post reported.
Earlier on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was blasted after declaring that the U.S. has just four goals in the thirty-one day war in Iran — and three of them Trump has insisted are complete. As critics noted, they did not include securing Iran’s nuclear stockpile or opening the Strait of Hormuz.
Mediaite reported that the clip Trump posted had already gone viral on social media Sunday evening.
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