President Donald Trump attends an occasion on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, on March 4, 2026. – Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump advised NCS Friday that Iran’s management has been “neutered” and that he’s in search of new management that may deal with the United States and Israel properly, even when that’s a non secular chief and it’s not a democratic state.
“Iran is not the same country it was a week ago,” he advised NCS in a transient telephone interview. “A week ago they were powerful, and now they’ve been indeed neutered.”
He expressed confidence within the ease of choosing a new chief — which he’s stated he have to be concerned in — and once more in contrast the mission to Venezuela, the place the US captured Nicolás Maduro earlier this yr and put his deputy in energy.
“It’s gonna work very easily. It’s going to work like did in Venezuela. We have a wonderful leader there. She’s doing a fantastic job. And it’s going to work Iike in Venezuela,” he stated, referring to performing president Delcy Rodriguez.
Trump additionally stated he was open to having a non secular chief in Iran. “Well I may be yeah, I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” he stated.
And pressed on if he’s insisting there must be a democratic state, Trump advised NCS, “No, I’m saying there has to be a leader that’s going be fair and just. Do a great job. Treat the United States and Israel well, and treat the other countries in the Middle East — they’re all our partners.”
He went on to tout his relationship with these international locations within the Middle East, claiming they’re “fighting for us.”
“And I became very friendly with all those countries. That’s why they’re all fighting for us. Before I got involved, we didn’t even speak to UAE and Saudi Arabia. You know, (President Joe) Biden shut out. Biden and (President Barack) Obama shut Saudi Arabia, UAE Qatar, he shut them all out. They were all going to go to China, and I got involved in very short period of time that became my friends,” Trump stated.
And whereas the president praised the US operation towards Iran — saying it’s a “12, maybe 15 on the scale of 10” — he urged he wasn’t worried about rising gasoline costs.
“That’s all right. It’ll be short term time. It’ll go way down very quickly,” he stated, whereas dismissing that costs are up considerably and saying he’s “already figured out” the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’ve knocked their Navy because, you know, when you knock out the Navy, they can’t do what they wanted to be able to do. The Navy is almost, we just hit about the 25 mark. Can you imagine that? Big ones — 25 ships are down,” he stated.
Trump suggests Cuba will quickly ‘fall’
Trump individually advised NCS that Cuba “is going to fall pretty soon.”
“Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too. They want to make a deal so badly,” he advised NCS’s Dana Bash in a telephone interview when touting US navy success in his second time period.
“They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco (Rubio) over there and we’ll see how that works out. We’re really focused on this one right now. We’ve got plenty of time, but Cuba’s ready — after 50 years,” he added.
“I’ve been watching it for 50 years, and it’s fallen right into my lap because of me, it’s fallen, but it’s nevertheless fallen right into the lap. And we’re doing very well,” he continued.
A day earlier, Trump stated on the White House that it’s solely a “question of time” earlier than American Cubans can return to their residence nation, showing to say that’s subsequent on the administration’s agenda after the continuing struggle with Iran.
“He’s doing some job, and your next one is going to be, we want to do that special Cuba,” Trump stated referring to his secretary of state. “He’s waiting. But he says, ‘Let’s get this one finished first.’ We could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen. If you watch countries over the years, you do them all too fast, bad things happen. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to this country.”
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