STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump set a deadline for Iran. Open the Strait of Hormuz or the United States would bomb Iranian power plants.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
He has now extended that deadline twice.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And so I gave them a 10-day period. They asked for seven. You're going to say, oh, Trump's a terrible negotiator. They asked for seven, and I said, I'm going to give you 10.
MARTÍNEZ: That was Trump calling into "The Five" on Fox News last night. The strait remains closed. But Trump is looking for an exit from the war he calls an excursion. Still, he's sending thousands of troops to the Middle East, so we'll speak in a few minutes with a lawmaker who was deployed as a paratrooper to Iraq. First, the latest information.
INSKEEP: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith has been covering the war and the president's overseeing of that war. Tam, good morning.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK, so yesterday, there's this cabinet meeting, another of these long, televised cabinet meetings. And Trump faced some questions about what he's doing and how he's trying to get out of the war. What's he saying?
KEITH: Well, you might remember earlier this week President Trump said that Iran had given him a present. Well, yesterday, he revealed what it was. He said he had been looking for proof that the Iranians involved in indirect talks with the U.S. were actually well-placed and able to speak for the regime. So he said they offered to let some oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
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TRUMP: Eight big tankers are going, loaded up with oil, right through. And I said, well, I guess they were right, and they were they were real. And I think they were Pakistani-flagged. And I said, well, I guess we're dealing with the right people.
KEITH: As a release valve for global oil markets, that many ships doesn't really make much of a dent.
INSKEEP: True.
KEITH: But Trump is running with it as a significant sign of progress. And I should note that Trump's announcement of yet another extension came after U.S. stocks ended their worst day since the war with Iran started a month ago now.
INSKEEP: Do you have any more clarity about whether and how the two sides are talking?
KEITH: Not really. Iran has downplayed talks. Pakistan, which is serving as an intermediary, has acknowledged that indirect talks are happening. Trump's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said during that cabinet meeting I was in yesterday that the U.S. has a 15-point action list that forms a framework for a peace deal. Iran has its own set of demands. And we don't have a lot of specifics, but they don't appear to be close. Witkoff said Iran is looking for an off-ramp. Trump insisted that he isn't desperate.
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TRUMP: I'm the opposite of desperate. I don't care. I want to - in fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tehran?
TRUMP: We're hitting them on a daily basis. No, I'm not talking about - I can't talk about specifics.
INSKEEP: The president did, though, previously talk about demanding unconditional surrender for Iran. What is he saying now?
KEITH: Yeah, so in that Fox News interview yesterday, Trump was asked directly, what does winning this war look like? And he said the U.S. has already won the war militarily. And then he went on a five-minute weave that included insults for two top Democratic politicians, complaints about the 2020 election being stolen, a discussion of how much he dislikes Fox News polls, how great the operation in Venezuela was, more about polls. And then ended by saying that he is protecting the country from lunatics with a nuclear weapon.
Earlier during that cabinet meeting, he also spent three minutes and 27 seconds talking about how Sharpie pens are better and cheaper than the fancy ballpoints used by other presidents. All of this while America is at war and average prices for a gallon of regular gas are bumping up against $4.
INSKEEP: NPR's Tamara Keith. Thanks so much.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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