How many times has Trump claimed an Iran deal is around the corner?

By Aaron Blake, CNN

Analysis - It’s been more than two months since US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran, saying at the time that the two sides were close to a deal.

Trump said on social media on 7 April (all dates are according to US time zones) that they were “very far along” but needed two weeks for “the Agreement to be finalised and consummated.” He concluded by saying that “it is an Honour to have this Longterm problem close to resolution.”

There was no resolution, of course. But Trump has nonetheless spent the two months since then continuing to suggest a deal was right around the corner. A lot.

Including the period before the ceasefire, he’s done it at least 37 times. That’s the number of times he’s said directly - in social media posts, public appearances and phone calls with the media - that a deal was nigh or claimed Iran was desperate to cut one.

There’s no indication that’s any more true today than it was back on 7 April. But Trump keeps saying it, either because he is delusional, trying to calm the financial markets or thinking he can will it into existence.

But it is clearly not a claim people should take seriously anymore.

It began 23 March, less than a month into the war. Trump was telling reporters outside Air Force One about supposed peace talks and cited “major points of agreement, I would ​say - almost all points of agreement.” (In fact, Iran denied negotiations.)

By the next day, he started trotting out what has become a common refrain: that Iran was desperate to cut a deal.

“I think we’re going to end it,” Trump added. “I can’t tell you for sure.”

By 25 March, it became that Iran wanted to “make a deal so badly.” On 26 March, at a Cabinet meeting, Iran was “begging to make a deal.”

(Despite being so anxious to cut that deal, Iran has somehow resisted for two and a half more months.)

By 29 March, during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked if he foresaw clinching a deal in the next week, and he responded: “I do see a deal in Iran, yeah.”

Trump’s predictions started to grow more insistent at this point. On 6 April, he said they had been “very close to a deal” before a setback.

The next day, he announced the ceasefire, which was originally supposed to last two weeks while the two sides hammered out an agreement.

A week later, on 15 April, he told Fox Business, “I think it’s close to over, I view it as very close to over.”

“We’ll see what happens,” he added. “I think they want to make a deal very badly.”

The next few days, Trump practically assured it was over:

“It’s looking very good that we’re going to make a deal with Iran, and it’s going to be a good deal,” he told reporters on 16 April.

By 17 April, he claimed in three separate appearances that Iran had “agreed to everything,” that “I think we will get a deal in the next day or two,” and that, “I don’t think there’s too many significant differences.”

And on 20 April, in a post on Truth Social, he predicted “it will all happen, relatively quickly!”

Despite that not panning out, Iran was still “dying to make a deal” on 30 April.

“When the war ends, which shouldn’t be too long …” he wagered to reporters on 1 May.

Trump held back on his predictions for a spell, before announcing on 18 May that he was delaying military strikes for “two or three days” at the request of Middle Eastern countries, “because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal.”

At this point, even Trump seemed to acknowledge how often such predictions had gone awry.

“We’ve had periods of time where we had - we thought pretty much getting close to making a deal and it didn’t work out,” Trump said, before adding: “But this is a little bit different.”

It was not different. But he remained undeterred.

“We’re gonna end that war very quickly,” Trump said 19 May at a congressional picnic.

By 23 May, he made the rounds much like he had on 17 April. He said the administration was “getting a lot closer” to a deal. He said the deal was “largely negotiated, subject to finalisation.” And he said the deal would be announced “shortly” and that the “final aspects” were being discussed.

On 28 May, in an interview with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, things were “close to a very good deal.”

And on Sunday, he assured that they were “very close to having a deal,” but that Iran and Israel were jeopardising it by engaging in a side scuffle.

“We are very close to a final deal with Iran,” he told Axios. “It is going to be a good deal. I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now.”

It was at least the third time Trump told Axios that a deal was imminent. Then Monday, during a tele-rally for war hawk Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Trump again predicted a “total victory” in the next two weeks.

“We’re negotiating now; they want to make a very good deal,” Trump said.

Then he added: “They’re willing to give us everything.”

- CNN