On Saturday, President Donald Trump advised reporters that he was “looking at” a new Iranian peace proposal. Then a reporter reminded Trump that he had stated the earlier night time that the US could be higher off not making a cope with Iran.
“Well, I wouldn’t have to. I didn’t say that,” Trump responded. “I said that if we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. But we’re not leaving right now. We’re gonna do it so nobody has to go back in two years or five years.”
In actuality, Trump did say — on camera — what the reporter advised him he stated. His denial was yet one more case wherein the president wrongly asserted he hadn’t stated one thing he had stated in a public discussion board.
Trump made the remark about Iran throughout a Friday speech to the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in South Florida. After mentioning that one of his golf golf equipment is hosting a PGA Tour event, he stated: “Yesterday, somebody came up, said, ‘Sir, the tournament is great.’ I said, ‘What tournament are you talking about? I’m so busy with the Iranians calling trying to make a good deal, and we’re not gonna let that happen.’ But … they’ve gotta make a bad deal. But — if they make a deal at all. Because frankly, maybe we’re better off not making a deal at all, do you want to know the truth. Because we can’t let this thing go on.”
Trump did say at a special level of the Friday speech that “if we left right now, it would take them 20 years, 25 years, to rebuild the place.” But that clearly doesn’t negate the existence of his “maybe we’re better off not making a deal at all” remark.
It’s one factor for the president to attempt to deny having made a remark somebody claimed he made in a personal assembly. For years, Trump has tried one thing extra brazen: denying he ever made remarks the general public noticed him make.
In December 2025, for instance, when an ABC News reporter requested Trump on camera whether or not he would launch the video of the US army’s controversial follow-up strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat within the Caribbean, Trump said, “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release, no problem.” But when one other ABC News reporter reminded him 5 days later that he stated he would don’t have any drawback releasing the video, Trump falsely claimed, “I didn’t say that. That’s — you said that, I didn’t say that. This is ABC fake news.”
During his 2024 marketing campaign, Trump falsely denied he had stated “lock her up” about his 2016 election opponent, Hillary Clinton, although he had done so on multiple occasions at televised rallies attended by 1000’s of individuals. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, he denied having made two remarks he had made on camera the previous week.
Trump has additionally tried to inaccurately painting the character of a few of his earlier public remarks. In an interview with Time journal in April 2025, he wrongly claimed he had “obviously” been talking “in jest” and exaggerating when he promised throughout his 2024 marketing campaign to right away finish the conflict in Ukraine if he was elected once more — although he publicly made the promise on more than 50 occasions in a wholly severe method.