Trump's New Description of Iran Talks: 'Boring'

Monday was a chaotic day on the Iran war front, and President Trump offered a surprising take to CNBC on the state of negotiations. His comments came after reports emerged that Iran was suspending talks because of Israel's military campaign in Lebanon:

• "I don't care if they're over, honestly," Trump told the outlet. "I really don't care. I couldn't care less."
• Referring to the negotiations, he added: "Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring."

The "boring" line caught the attention of David Sanger of the New York Times, who notes that back in March, the president raised the same theme in the early days of the war:

• "Somebody said today, they said, 'Oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly. After that, he'll get bored." But, he added, "there's nothing boring about this."

Later Monday, Trump spoke with ABC News and suggested things were back on track after he had a reportedly testy call with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. "Looking good," said Trump, who predicted that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz should take shape over the next week, a timeline that keeps shifting. "It's not a simple thing," he said. "You're talking about a real large country—them—very large country making a deal. Tremendous hostility, really."