Trump Officials: We Could’ve Cut an ‘Obama-Plus’ Iran Deal — But Tehran Kept Stalling

Senior administration officials told reporters Tuesday they believed they could’ve struck a deal with Iran down the line, but claimed the country was arguing in bad faith and stalling.

President Donald Trump’s administration struck Iran early Saturday morning, and the conflict has continued since. The administration has given a multitude of reasons for striking the country, frequently pointing to their belief that Iran was rebuilding their nuclear weapons program. (RELATED: How Rubio Prepared Congress For US Campaign Against Iran)

Senior administration officials explained to reporters during a press briefing call that they thought they could’ve made a deal similar to Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but it would’ve taken months because Iran “[was] not looking to make a quick deal.”

“So basically, we came back to the president and we said, look, if you want us to make, you know, a deal, like an Obama kind of deal, maybe it would be an Obama-plus deal. We could probably get one done. It would take months. These guys definitely were not looking to make a quick deal,” one senior administration official told reporters.

The officials said they detailed to the president that if he wanted them to solve the issue, they could get there — but Iran was “basically playing games,” and it was “just very, very slippery.”

“So we said, look, if you decide that you want to do diplomacy, we’ll go, we’ll push as hard as possible. We’ll get in the room. We’ll fight for every point that we get,” one senior administration official told reporters.

“But these guys, they just really were showing that, that they didn’t want to, they weren’t willing to make the type of deal that President Trump would have been satisfied with,” the official continued.

The officials told reporters that Iran was hiding the purpose of their nominally-civilian nuclear program and using their research reactor to stockpile fuel that could be eventually used to create a weapon.

The administration made it clear their red line was “no enrichment,” but it was evident Iran believed they had “the inalienable right to enrich,” the officials said.

“They basically offered us a lot of political wins and some concessions, but they were unwilling to give up the building blocks of what they needed to preserve in order to get to a bomb,” one of the senior administration officials told reporters.

(L/R) US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine take questions during a press conference on US military action in Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026.  (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

During negotiations, the officials told reporters the president had four objectives when making a deal with Iran.

He did not want Iran to build a nuclear weapon and wanted the country to return all materials they needed to do so, close the three nuclear bases attacked during Midnight Hammer — the administration’s June strike — ensure that Iran would not be the provocateur for any proxy armies like Hezbollah, Houthis and Hamas, and address ballistic missiles in the region.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have been heading up negotiations with Iran, have not spoken to anyone in the Iranian Regime since last week, the officials told reporters.

“We’re not using anyone as an interlocutor. This is a military action, and it’s got to run its course,” one official added on whether they had talked to the Iranian Regime and on requests from other countries to help mediate.

In the hours after the attack, officials told reporters during a different background call that the president had “no choice” but to strike Iran because the U.S. believed Iran was going to strike their troops first.

The president released two video messages explaining the strike. In the second, which was released Sunday, Trump said he would leave the country once the U.S. achieved their objectives.

“The president said yesterday in his video message that we will leave Iran when we complete all of our objectives. What are our objectives?” @DailyCaller reporter @ReaganReese_ to Hegseth at briefing. pic.twitter.com/CsgbWgNgtw

— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) March 2, 2026

Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Daily Caller on Monday that the objectives are to end Iran’s ability to project power against America and U.S. allies, as well as take away Iran’s ability to create and have a nuclear weapon.

“So whether that’s ballistic missiles and drones, so offensive capabilities, effectively their navy, which would attempt to set other terms and impose different costs, drone capabilities, which we, which we laid out there, and ultimately though this tying it back to Midnight Hammer, the president has been willing to make a deal,” Hegseth told the Caller.

“You can’t have a nuclear bomb. Radical Islamists can’t have a nuclear bomb that they wield against the world. He gave them every single opportunity, then we precisely took it away. And even, even then after that, they didn’t have that, they didn’t come to the table with a willingness to give it away. So ultimately, that those nuclear ambitions, which never ceased, are something that had to be addressed,” he added.