President Donald Trump sharply rebuked Iran’s claim that there have been no talks to end the war after reporters questioned him about conflicting messages Monday morning.

Trump made the comment after saying earlier that day in a Social Truth Posting that had ordered the Department of Defense to suspend military attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure for five days after “very good and productive talks” with Iran about ending “hostilities” in the Middle East.

Iranian officials denied that Tehran was in talks with the president shortly after Trump made the claim. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Qalibaf, also saying that “reports claiming otherwise are fake news intended to influence financial and oil markets and distract from the challenges facing the United States and Israel,” according to state media.

Before boarding Air Force One on Monday, asked a journalist Trump on Iran’s comments that he was “not telling the truth when it comes to ‘productive talks’ to end the war,” prompting the president to attack the Middle Eastern country.

“Well, they’ll have to get better public relations,” he replied. “We’ve had very, very solid conversations. We’ll see where they lead. We have important points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement.”

Trump argued that the US attacks on Iran could have made the country’s internal communications non-existent after they were “blown to pieces”, adding: “They can’t talk to each other.”

Trump then told reporters that special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had conducted “very intense” conversations, claiming they went “perfectly.”

President Trump is seen speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Monday, March 23, 2026.
President Trump is seen speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Monday, March 23, 2026.

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“I would say that if they go ahead with that, it will end that problem, that conflict. I think it will end it in a very, very substantial way. We have our partners in the Middle East very much in mind. We have had excellent relations with many of them, as you know. Many of them were surprisingly affected. I was surprised to see, as was everyone else… they are very much in mind in the discussions,” he said.

Telling reporters that the talks took place on Sunday, Trump went on to claim that Iran “is very [wants] to reach an agreement.”

“We’d like to make a deal too. We’ll meet today, probably by phone, because it’s very hard to find a country, I guess it’s very hard for them to leave. But at some point we’ll meet very soon. We’re in a five-day period, we’ll see how it goes, and if it goes well, we’ll end up solving this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts,” Trump added.

Elsewhere in his talk with reporters, Trump declined to answer which Iranian leadership official Witkoff had spoken to. He then noted that it is “a little difficult” because “we have eliminated everyone.”

“Nobody [has] I’m listening [from] the second supreme leader, the son [Mojtaba Khamenei]” Trump continued. “We don’t know if he’s alive. But the people who seem to be running [Iran]and they seem to be based on facts, because the things they have said have happened.”