By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-28 16:46:58 | Updated at 2026-09-28 23:20:15
7 hours ago
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he won’t rule out more strikes against Iran ahead of the midterm elections, also saying that he believes the United States is winning the ongoing conflict.
“I don’t want to say that. I mean, it’s possible, but I just don’t want to say that,” Trump said on Sunday at the PGA Tour Presidents Cup in Illinois, when asked by a reporter whether military strikes could be launched against the country before the November elections.
“I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to win this war very soon, and as soon as we win it, the oil will go down, way down to what it was before the war.”
Trump said Iran won’t be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.
When pressed on whether U.S. sanctions announced last month by the Treasury Department are succeeding, Trump said the United States is winning both militarily and economically.
“I think both. I think we'll win it both ways. We’ve already won it really from a military standpoint,” he said, adding that Iran currently has “no economy” due to the sanctions.
“But that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped that.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has maintained a naval blockade against Iranian ports since July. Overall, 122 ships have been redirected by CENTCOM forces to comply with the blockade, it said in a post on X on Sept. 25.
Trump’s comment came a day after he rejected an Iranian proposal to end the conflict, saying Tehran is “losing so badly.”
“They want to make a deal, and I think that’s fine,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before leaving for a college football game on Saturday. “I'd like to make a deal, too. But that deal would not be acceptable.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists on Sept. 25 that under Tehran’s proposal, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales, and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
“The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” he told reporters at the U.N. Security Council.
Since the start of the war, Iran has sought to disrupt commercial shipping through the strait by launching attacks on oil tankers. The U.S. military has responded by striking Iranian military targets in the area in late August and earlier in September.
CENTCOM on Monday sought to dispute claims from a senior Iranian official by saying that Tehran does not have control over the Hormuz Strait through its navy.
“Iran has no navy because American forces sank it. And Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz as evidenced by the thousands of ships that have passed through freely along with more than 1 billion barrels of oil just over the past few months,” the command wrote on X.
Brent crude oil futures, the international standard, increased by roughly 2 percent on Monday to $106 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate also increased by more than 1 percent to $93 per barrel.
U.S. gas prices have remained roughly the same over the past week. According to the American Automobile Association, the price of regular gasoline was $4.47 per gallon on Monday, unchanged from a week ago.
