TL;DR
Trump recycled 'take the oil' on Truth Social while his VP was in Islamabad negotiating a deal.
MSM Perspective
EuroBulletin24 and Time flagged the international law violations; most outlets treated it as rhetoric.
X Perspective
X treats the post as either a negotiating tactic or proof the war has no fixed objective.
"With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE," Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday, while his Vice President was sitting across from Iranian negotiators in Islamabad. [1]
The post reprises language Trump has used since his first term, but in the context of an active war and a collapsing negotiation, it functions differently. When the stated war aim was denuclearization, "take the oil" was background noise. Now that Vance has just told reporters the talks failed because Iran would not "accept our terms," [2] the post reads less like bluster and more like a second set of objectives operating in parallel with the diplomatic track.
International law scholars at EuroBulletin24 noted that seizing another nation's natural resources violates the Hague Regulations' prohibition on pillage. [3] MSM largely filed the post under "Trump rhetoric." X treated it as either a negotiating pressure tool or a genuine statement of war aims that no one in the administration will confirm or deny.
The gap between the two readings is the gap between strategy and improvisation.
-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington
Sources & X Posts
News Sources