President Donald Trump spent the last three days alternately threatening to resume bombing Iran and offering a deal, while asserting American ownership of the Strait of Hormuz. Leaving the White House for Florida on Oct. 23, he told reporters, “Iran is not able to do much now. And we could, if we wanted to, just take all of the oil. We could take the whole country.” He went on: “And as you know, the Hormuz Strait is ours, and that’s the way we’ll keep it.” The choice, as he put it, was, “Do we want to finish it off or do we just want to let it wither? Because we’re getting everything we wanted.”

That evening, at a rally in Florida, hours after U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack had said a strike “this weekend” was “absolutely” possible, Trump said, “We may do another little Epic Fury, or they’ll agree. If they’re smart, they’ll just say, ‘Let’s get down to business.’” Asked about Barrack’s remark, he had earlier said, “That was my ambassador? He’s a pretty powerful man, I guess. If that’s the case, I don’t know anything about it.”