Trump admits US 'shouldn't have been in Iran' but says he's 'in no hurry' to negotiate

WASHINGTON, DC: As tensions over Iran escalate, Donald Trump now appears to suggest the US should never have become involved in the conflict.

The 79-year-old president admitted that the US shouldn't have started the war with Iran as he compared the more than three-month conflict to the Iraq War, which lasted nearly a decade.

Trump compares Iran conflict with Iraq War

President Trump recently sat down for an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, where he spoke about an array of subjects, including the new White House ballroom.

At one point in the interview published on Saturday, May 30, he veered off the conversation to the Iraq War, recalling the conflict that started with a US-led invasion on March 20, 2003, and stretched for more than eight years before combat forces withdrew in December 2011.

"If you look at what happened with Iraq, we did so bad, that was such a foolish thing, what we did,” he noted.

Trump then indicated that the US would have been better off staying out of Iran, just like Iraq. “We shouldn’t have been there in the first place, by the way, and we shouldn’t have been in Iran," he said.

However, referring to the June 2025 attack, the commander-in-chief said, "If we didn't hit them with the B-2 bombers nine months ago, they would have a nuclear weapon right now, and it would have been a different story. You wouldn't have had Israel and you probably wouldn't have the Middle East."

However, he mentioned that he isn't in a "hurry" to negotiate an end to the war. "I'm in no hurry. I'd like to say I'm in a hurry because gas prices will come down, but if you are in a hurry, you won't make a good deal," he said, adding, "If we don't get what we want, then we will end it in a different way."

Trump’s 'final determination' on Iran

This came as Trump announced that he had held a meeting with top aides to make a "final determination" about a framework for extending the ceasefire with Iran, but it concluded without clarity on the next steps.

In a Truth Social post, the president said the deal must see the Strait of Hormuz reopened, and Iran must work with the US to have its highly enriched uranium "DESTROYED."

An advisor to Iran's supreme leader on Saturday accused Trump of "betraying diplomacy" by making what he described as excessive demands. 

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is strictly peaceful and insists it is not willing to negotiate over it.

However, US officials said the two sides reached a preliminary framework agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding, on Thursday, subject to approval from Trump and Iran's leadership. The proposed deal would reportedly extend the existing ceasefire by 60 days and pave the way for negotiations on the future of Iran's nuclear program.