President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran's oil "is there for the taking," but doing so could extend the conflict with Tehran, adding that Americans want to "see us come home."
"If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil because it is there for the taking," Trump told reporters at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. "There is not a thing they could do about it. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home."
"If it were up to me, I'd take the oil, I'd keep the oil, and we'd make plenty of money. And I'd also take care of the people of Iran much better than they've been taking care of. It's been horrible. They killed 45,000 people as of a month and a half ago, 45,000 protesters. We don't do that. So, if I had my choice, I would keep the oil, but I also want to make the people of our country happy. I think most people wouldn't understand that."
He said the U.S. operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro was carried out quickly enough for the United States to seize and profit from the country's vast oil resources.
"I'll give you an example. Venezuela has worked out so incredible," he said. "We have 100 million barrels of oil right now in Houston being refined. It has been a great relationship with Venezuela. The leader has been fantastic, and I think we are going to have a long-term, very good relationship. And it might be beyond the long-term."
Trump was asked how he knows Americans want troops stationed in the Middle East to return home.
"I'm pretty good at this stuff, and I go around and I check, and they'd like to see us win and come home," he said. "I appreciate CNN for the first time maybe in my life. They did a poll, and everyone was saying, 'oh, is Trump losing MAGA?' No, I'm not losing MAGA. MAGA loves what I'm doing. And CNN did a poll of MAGA voters, a big poll, very important poll. Harry [Enten]. He went on and he said this is amazing: 100% support. He said I've never had a 100% poll at anything before."
"So, they support what we are doing, but they would like to see it end and come back. Remember, wars last years. We were in there for 34 days, and we've obliterated a very powerful country in 34 days. Yeah, if it were up to me, I would like to keep the oil. I just don't think the people of the United States would really understand."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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