Name: Trump regularly presented with ‘off-ramps’ to end Iran war, sources say
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T23:05:41.000Z
Duration: 19 min 16 s
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Now I'm Kelly o' Donnell in Washington where President Trump is making a direct appeal to the international community to help the US Secure the Strait of Hormuz to avoid a global oil supply crisis.

Adverbs of degree

Even as he claims the US could secure the strait by itself and says that we don't need the oil.

It comes as the White House continues to try to reassure consumers that the spike in energy prices due to the conflict will be temporary.

Yesterday, President Trump said he was demanding countries that rely on oil from the Middle east join the US in forming a coalition to secure the strait, which supplies roughly 20% of the global oil market.

Today the President doubling down on his calls for a global coalition.

We strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm.

I have that from a number of them and I'd like to say their names but frankly I don't know if they would want me to or not because maybe they don't want to be targeted.

But I say wouldn't matter if you targeted or not because this is a paper tiger that we're dealing with now.

It wasn't a paper tiger two weeks ago, it's a paper tiger now.

That assessment comes as the President is also claiming that Iran has been, quote, literally obliterated in the war and that its leaders leadership has effectively been dismantled, prompting this question from reporters.

Now that you've announced that the US has destroyed all of Iran's mine laying ships, why can't the US Just immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

Well, we could, but it takes two to tango.

We have to get people to take their billion dollar ship and, and you know, drive it up.

You know, these ships are very expensive.

So they don't want to take a chance at, gee, I think we, I think you'll be okay.

We don't know if they even set any minds.

But the thought that they may have is enough to keep people from saying we don't need it.

Among the countries the President is calling out for help, the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Japan and China, all responding to his request with mixed reactions and none doing so publicly, none committing to deploying assets to the Strait of Hormuz so far.

Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister telling state TV the Strait of Hormuz is open and only closed to enemies.

Today those prices are coming down to around $93 a barrel, but still 40% higher.

Fuel prices also continue to climb, with the average regular gas price per gallon inching closer to that $4 mark.

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying it could be a few weeks before those prices come down.

After the conflict is over, you'll start to see prices come back down.

See this a short term disruption in the flow of energy.

Americans will feel it for a few more weeks, but

at the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies.

As for now, how much longer this could go on is a question mark.

And Iran's foreign minister says there is no reason to negotiate with the US President Trump was also asked about the possibility of negotiations and here's what he had to say.

Look, all of their leaders are dead as far as we know, but they're all dead.

We met with the next group and, but we don't know who their leader is.

Joining me now are NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba, NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby, NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung, and

NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley.

Traffic through the strait has really ground to a halt in part because the companies that have the vessels don't want to expose themselves to the risk.

Do you get a sense that the president's attempt to form a coalition is actually materializing?

It doesn't seem like it, Kelly, because he's trying to do this retroactively, right?

He's trying to kind of bring this coalition together to countries, asking them for help when they weren't really consulted in the first place on launching this attack against Iran with Israel.

So countries are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, not so fast.

And also they're saying this isn't our war, this isn't necessarily our conflict, even if we do have a vested interest in getting the Strait of Hormuz to be seen safe enough for vessels to pass through it.

So they want to have a more diplomatic conversation.

That is certainly not what President Trump likes to necessarily want to engage in.

He said about the UK prime minister, for instance, who said, well, let me talk to my team first and maybe we'll have A discussion and I'll make a determination and get back to you.

And the President said in this event today, why does he need to talk to his team?

Why can't he just tell me he wants to help and go ahead with it?

So a difference in leadership style and a difference in the approach to, to this very complicated diplomatic challenge, and

so revealing, because the President doesn't feel he needs to consult, therefore another head of government might not need to.

Is there a conflict in these discussions with the President saying he needs this international coalition, but

at the same time is describing the threat from Iran as far reduced?

Yeah, I think there are kind of a myriad of contradictions that the President has been making here because he is trying to make the argument that militarily, so many of these targets have been hit, so many of the objectives have been met, but

clearly this economic consideration and dealing with the Strait of Hormuz, which he says he knew and was aware this was going to be such a problem, makes it very, very difficult to be able to declare victory in any sense, because until you have solved that, we don't really know how the President can make that claim.

And then you also are seeing these reports of additional resources of Marines and a unit that are going to be sent to the region, unclear exactly what their goal will be and what their role will be.

But it is very hard for the President to say, on one hand we are ready to wind down, while on other, you're seeing a ramp up in that sense.

We're still waiting this afternoon for an event that is yet to take place, as I understand it, with the President and Vice President Vance in the same room together, which might not sound unusual, except we have not seen that since the war began.

Just a few days ago, it was the President who admitted that the Vice President did have some, quote, philosophical differences in his approach to what they should do leading up to the decision making on the war against Iran.

The fact that we are still seeing them and there they are at this event now is notable because likely there will be some questions presented to one or both of them about that gulf, about that difference in opinion.

Now, the Vice President, when he was asked about this a couple of days ago, said, I'm not going to reveal personal considerations and recommendations that I make to the commander in chief, to the media.

I'm not going to reveal that to all of us.

But I think it is very instructive that the President doesn't really hesitate when he's asked about it.

He will say yes, maybe we, you know, differed on a couple of different things but were aligned on these others.

Which just sets up this whole other major conversation, as you know, Kelly, about 2028 and what this could mean for the president backing his own vice president or potentially his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who's somebody that he has heaped praise on as we have seen this conflict over the last three weeks.

And Rubio has been so prominent in this whole discussion by virtue of the role that he plays.

Cordy, let me bring you into this discussion as well.

And we talk about the feasibility issues from the military side of things, of trying to form a coalition, of trying to bring these leaders together.

Do you get a sense that there's any progress on this and that there's any definition as to what the roles would be if other nations joined in?

Yeah, it's not impossible that the militaries could come together and provide some, present some sort of a coalition that would be helping ships get through.

But at this point, we don't see any real momentum towards that goal.

There's options like things like some nations can provide aircraft that can do surveillance, maybe even provide air defenses in the way that they could defend against drones by shooting at them, air to air missiles or whatever it is.

There's unmanned systems that they could use as well.

But again, at this point, we don't see any indication that that is really moving in any direction.

And it's in large part because of what just Monica just said, that is these countries weren't brought in in advance.

And even though they have an economic interest in this being the Strait of Hormuz, allowing for free flow of comm traffic, they may not want to get involved militarily.

And the reality is the same exact threat that exists to the US Navy would exist for all of those other militaries as well.

There is a real threat to the military if they were to try and take on this, this challenge, even as a multination coalition.

So it's an extraordinary ask from the president to these allies.

We also need your expertise when it comes to that critical oil depot known as Kharg island in Iran.

There have been questions about whether the U.S.

now that there have been strikes, there would there be some plan to have any boots on the ground just to secure that critical area?

Is that something that's being discussed?

And this is something that the US has war gamed for years, the possibility of doing this.

But the reality is, Kelly, it would take thousands of U.S. troops to accomplish that.

And as difficult as it could be to take the island or holding, it would be even more difficult and dangerous.