{"id":17830,"date":"2026-03-01T09:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17830"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:56:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:56:44","slug":"i-have-agreed-to-talk-the-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17830","title":{"rendered":"“\u2018I Have Agreed to Talk\u2019”, The Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back to News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump tells The Atlantic<\/em> that Iranian leaders want to resume negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Michael Scherer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Portrait
Heather Diehl \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MARCH 1, 2026, 11 AM ET<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day after launching strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump told me this morning that the country\u2019s new leadership wants to talk with him and that he plans to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,\u201d Trump told me in a phone call from his Mar-a-Lago club shortly before 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether his conversation with the Iranians would happen today or tomorrow, Trump responded, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you that.\u201d He noted that some of the Iranians involved in negotiations in recent weeks were no longer alive. \u201cMost of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big\u2014that was a big hit,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should\u2019ve done it sooner. They played too cute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday morning, in a video posted on social media, Trump called on the people of Iran to rise up against the current regime once the bombing campaign<\/a> ended. \u201cNow you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let\u2019s see how you respond,\u201d he said. \u201cNow is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked Trump whether he was willing to prolong the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran to support a popular uprising if one unfolds. \u201cWill they continue to get support if it takes some time to overthrow the regime?\u201d I asked. Trump was noncommittal. \u201cI have to look at the situation at the time it happens, Michael. You can\u2019t give an answer to that question,\u201d he said.

But the president also expressed confidence that a successful uprising was coming, noting the signs of celebration in the streets of Iran and supportive gatherings of expatriate Iranians in New York and Los Angeles. \u201cThat is going to happen. You are seeing that, and I think it\u2019s gonna happen. A lot of people are extremely happy over there and in Los Angeles and in many other places,\u201d he told me. (In addition to pro-regime-change celebrations in several major cities, large anti-war protests have also been held, many of them just a few blocks away.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump told me he was pleased with Iranian people\u2019s reaction so far. \u201cKnowing it\u2019s very dangerous, knowing I\u2019ve told everybody to stay in place\u2014I think it\u2019s a very dangerous place right now,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe people over there are shouting in the streets with happiness, but at the same time, there are a lot of bombs coming down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, the U.S. intelligence community has tracked and disrupted Iranian-led assassination plots<\/a> against U.S. officials, including Trump, inside the United States. I asked him whether he had any indication of renewed Iranian threats against the U.S. homeland since the start of the attack. \u201cI don\u2019t want to tell you that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after our conversation, U.S. military officials announced that three U.S. service members were killed in the operation and five more were seriously wounded\u2014the first known American casualties of the campaign. Trump told me he expects the attack on Iran will not disrupt Republican efforts before this fall\u2019s midterm elections to convince voters that his administration is focused on delivering economic benefits for the country. \u201cWe have the greatest economy we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe word isn\u2019t out because people like you don\u2019t write about it properly. But the economy is ready to go through the roof. And it already is in many cases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump argued that the attack\u2019s effect on oil markets, which reopen tonight, would likely be less disruptive on American pocketbooks than some analysts had predicted, given the early success of the operation. \u201cThis could have been a huge price increase with respect to oil, if things went wrong,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d he added, before pivoting back to his decision to attack Iran for the second time since June. \u201cPeople have wanted to do it for 47 years. They\u2019ve killed people for 47 years, and now it\u2019s reversed on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to News Trump tells The Atlantic that Iranian leaders want to resume negotiations. By Michael Scherer MARCH 1, 2026, 11 AM ET One day after launching strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump told me this morning that the country\u2019s new leadership wants to talk with him and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17840,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions\/17840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}