Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
April 10, 2026
Q. Can we come talk to you? Mr. President, thank you. Thank you, sir.
The President. Okay.
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement
Q. What did you tell J.D. Vance before he left, sir?
The President. Well, I wish him luck. He's got a big thing. We'll find out what's going on.
They're militarily defeated. And now we're going to open up the Gulf with them—with or without them. But that will be open. We're going to be—or the Strait, as they call it. And I think it's going to go pretty quickly. And if it doesn't, we'll be able to finish it off.
One way or the other, it's going well. The navy's gone. The air force is gone. All anti-aircraft is gone. The leaders are gone. The whole place is gone. So we'll see how it turns out.
So it's J.D. It's Steve and Jared. They have a good team, and they meet tomorrow. We'll see how it all works out.
Q. [Inaudible]
Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. You're not going to let them toll the Strait, are you? I mean, it's international.
The President. No, we're not going to let that. It's international water. If they're doing that—nobody knows if they're doing that, but if they're doing that, we're not going to let that happen.
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement/Commercial Transit Through the Strait of Hormuz
Q. What would a good deal look like for you?
The President. No nuclear weapon, number one. You know, I think it's already been regime change, but we never had that as a criteria.
No nuclear weapon. That's 99 percent of it.
Q. What about the Strait of Hormuz as well? The Strait?
The President. Yes, but that will open up automatically. The—yes. The answer is yes. But the Strait will open up. If we just left, the Strait's going to—otherwise, they make no money. So the Strait's going to open.
But what we have is no nuclear weapon, but we'll open the Strait anyway.
Q. And the Iranians——
The President. Don't forget, we don't use the Strait. Other countries use the Strait. So, we do have other countries coming up, and they'll help out. But we don't use it.
It won't be easy. It won't be—I would say this: We will have that open fairly soon, the Strait.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. And what's your backup plan?
The President. Excuse?
Q. What's your backup plan if the—there's no deal to open the Strait?
The President. The—you don't need a backup plan. We have—the military is defeated. Their military is gone. They have—you know, we've degraded just about everything. They have very few missiles. They have very little manufacturing capability. We've hit them hard. Our military is amazing——
Q. Is this——
The President. ——the job they've done.
Iran/U.S. Diplomatic Engagement
Q. Sorry, sir. Is this a one-and-done talk, or are you open to more talks after this depending on what they say?
The President. I don't know. I can't tell you. Have to see what happens tomorrow.
They're—they've been talking for 47 years with other Presidents, and we're not doing much talking.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Q. Thank you, sir.
NOTE: The President spoke at 5:14 p.m. on the tarmac prior to boarding Air Force One. In his remarks, he referred to Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steven C. Witkoff. He also referred to his son-in-law, U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Jared C. Kushner.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Joint Base Andrews, MD.
Locations: Joint Base Andrews, MD.
Names: Kushner, Jared C.; Vance, James D. "J.D."; Witkoff, Steven C.
Subjects: Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, nuclear weapons development; Iran, U.S. military operations; Maryland, Joint Base Andrews; News media, Presidential interviews; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace; U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions; Vice President.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600246.