U.S. President Donald Trump talks as he meets French President Emmanuel Macron for a bilateral meeting at Hotel Royal Evian on June 15 in Évian-les-Bains, France.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that he has unlimited power and insisted the deal reached with Iran amounts to “unconditional surrender” by Tehran, in an interview with Axios.
The U.S. and Iran signed the agreement on Thursday, after three and a half months of conflict that shut the Strait of Hormuz and rattled global energy markets. Trump said he negotiated the agreement to prevent the conflict from triggering a global economic depression, speaking in the interview Thursday evening stateside.
The memorandum of understanding includes a 60-day negotiating period to reach a final deal, a reopening of the critical Strait of Hormuz and a framework for nuclear negotiations. Several key details remain unresolved and will be addressed in subsequent negotiations.
Asked what he had learned from the war about the limits to his power, Trump said that “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits.”
Shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz began picking up as the agreement took effect, with cargo ships and oil tankers resuming transit through the narrow artery.
At least 18 transits were recorded during the June 17-18 period, the highest count for any comparable timeframe since the conflict started, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward.
U.S. Central Command said Thursday that American forces had lifted all blockade enforcement on maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian coastal areas.
“All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased,” CENTCOM said in a social media post, adding that U.S. naval forces would remain in the general area to ensure all aspects of the agreement are followed.
A White House spokesperson said U.S. Vice President JD Vance canceled a planned trip to Switzerland on Friday, where he had been expected to begin the 60-day negotiations with Iranian officials, citing logistical reasons.
“The plans for the upcoming technical talks have not been finalized, and the U.S. delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity. But the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the spokesperson said.
The deal has drawn criticism from lawmakers who argue Trump was not tough enough on Iran, with terms of the interim agreement falling short of what the president set out to achieve at the start of the war.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Trump did a “very poor job of negotiating” and said the U.S. was worse off than before the war started.
“This will be regarded as one of the biggest American disasters, and it’s because Trump started this war,” Schumer said.
Senator Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Iran retained leverage through its control of the Strait of Hormuz and said the conflict failed to achieve key objectives, including regime change and ending Iran’s missile and nuclear program. Welch estimated the war cost an estimated $100 billion and called the outcome “a failure.”
Trump on Thursday pushed back at the mounting criticism, saying those who think he was soft on Tehran were either “jealous, bad people or stupid.”
During the Axios interview, Trump again bristled at the idea that he should have pressed harder, asking what additional weeks of bombardment would have achieved while the strait remained closed.
“This is the kind of thing that could cause a worldwide depression,” he said.
