President Trump defended his administration’s approach to Iran and said he is seeking diplomacy rather than regime change. In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernen, the president said Iranian negotiators have agreed to “just about everything we need.”

JOE KERNEN: What if they jerk you around – what if they jerk us around again with either the Strait or with the – you know, they know the midterms are coming – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, yeah. Because they’ve had their own way for 47 years. Like if you’re a spoiled child and you’ve had your way for many years with your parents, and all of a sudden they come down hard on you, it takes you a little while to get used to it. They’ve had their way for 47 years. They pushed everywhere. They were known as the bully of the Middle East. They pushed the countries around, and they pushed the United States around, because we had presidents that weren’t willing to do – look, Barack Obama paid them to try and keep them in line. Gave them 1.7 billion in cash. You remember that, because you reported that. They put it in a beautiful 757 Boeing. They took all the seats out and they stuffed it with green cash from Virginia, Maryland, and DC. The banks had no money left. They literally took every – and they delivered it to Iran, and they took out satchels and sacks of money. In addition to that, they paid tens of billions of dollars and you know what they got? They got a lot of nuclear research, and a lot of weapons, and a lot of missiles, and an enemy. They actually went on the other side, and how a Jewish person can vote for a Democrat is beyond me. KERNEN: Well, let’s talk – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I’ve been the best president in the history of Israel, and they acknowledge – and by the way, in Israel I think I was at 99% or something, but Joe, you can’t let Iran – whether it’s Israel, the Middle East, or not – you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And when you say maybe I’m a little bit nice, no other presidents even thought of doing what I did. So, in my first little while there, I ripped their military apart. They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no radar, their leaders are all dead. And they elect – not elect – they raise new leaders. They’re all dead also. We’re on the third set of leaders, and we actually get along with them. I think they’re much more rational. By the way, I think that’s regime change, but I’m not looking for regime change. I’m looking for something very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Or if you want to see market disruption – so think of it. The oil today is at $ 68, the market is up to almost 53,000. The S&P, they said the S&P would never hit 7000. Never. I did that in 10 months. They said I would never hit it during my term. They said I’d never hit 50,000 during my term – KERNEN: We spoke – PRESIDENT TRUMP: And nobody else would – KERNEN: You asked me if I – PRESIDENT TRUMP: But Joe, and they said nobody else either. They said if I could get to – KERNEN: This is a pragmatic end. I said that to you when you asked me – that this is a pragmatic end. You’re not going to be in a forever war – PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true. KERNEN: And there are other concerns, but – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Joe, wait just a second. We were in Vietnam for 19 years, we were in Afghanistan for like 10 years, we were in the Korean War forever. We were in – I don’t even mention World War I and World War II, they’re biggies. But you know what? Stuff like this could have led to it. But we were in many, many years in every war. I’ve been there for four months. And what have I done? I’ve defeated them militarily. They’re totally defeated militarily. They have some missiles left, we could wipe them out too. And I hit them three times last week very hard, because they sent a drone into a ship, I hit them. Then they did something else, and I hit them. I hit them three nights in a row, the week before I hit them two nights in a row, very hard. And we’re negotiating, and we’ll see whether or not. I think they’ve agreed to just about everything we need.

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