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Trump Says Economic Toll on Americans' Irrelevant to Iran Talks
(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the financial strain the ongoing Iran conflict has inflicted on ordinary Americans plays zero role in how he approaches negotiations to bring the war he launched in February to a close.
"Not even a little bit," Trump said when pressed by a reporter on the degree to which Americans' economic hardship informs his stance at the negotiating table. "The only thing that matters when I am talking about Iran: they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."
The admission arrives as the human cost of the US-Israeli war against Iran continues to mount. Americans have absorbed approximately $38.1 billion in excess energy expenditures since the conflict began, according to figures compiled by the Iran War Energy Cost Tracker from Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs — a figure ticking upward in real time with every passing second.
Of that staggering total, $20.86 billion has been shouldered in elevated petroleum costs, while diesel expenses account for a further $17.2 billion. The average US household has absorbed $290.56 in additional monthly fuel costs across gasoline and diesel combined.
The conflict ignited on February 28th when the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate against Israel and American Gulf allies while simultaneously shuttering the Strait of Hormuz. A ceasefire brokered by Pakistan took hold on April 8th, though negotiations in Islamabad subsequently stalled without yielding a permanent settlement. Trump later extended the truce indefinitely amid a deepening impasse over resuming talks.
Tensions sharpened anew over the weekend when Trump lashed out at Tehran after Iran submitted its formal response to his proposal for a permanent cessation of hostilities, branding it "totally unacceptable."
Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf fired back, insisting there is "no alternative" but for Washington to recognize the rights of the Iranian people as enshrined in Tehran's 14-point counterproposal.
"Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another," Qalibaf wrote on the US social media platform X.
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