Trump Reviews Iran's 14-Point Peace Offer as War Hits Day 65

President Donald Trump said Saturday he is reviewing a new 14-point Iranian proposal aimed at ending the two-month-old war but cast doubt on any quick agreement, telling reporters that Tehran “has not yet paid a big enough price.” The comments came on the 65th day since the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran, a conflict that has already claimed civilian lives across the region, strained the global economy, and left Trump’s approval ratings at record lows.

The Iranian plan, delivered through Pakistani mediators, calls for formal guarantees of nonaggression, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the vicinity of Iran, lifting of the American naval blockade, release of frozen Iranian assets, broad sanctions relief, and an end to hostilities “on all fronts,” including Lebanon. Nuclear negotiations, which Trump has called a “red line,” would be postponed. Iranian officials framed the document as a response to an earlier nine-point American outline and insist they want a permanent resolution within 30 days rather than another temporary ceasefire.

Trump’s public reaction was lukewarm at best. He has not ruled out renewed military action, saying only that “if they misbehave, if they do something bad,” further strikes remain possible. Israeli military officials, meanwhile, are preparing for the possibility of additional U.S. attacks and expect Iranian retaliation against Israel. Senior Israeli officers told reporters any deal that leaves Iran’s uranium enrichment program intact would constitute a failure.

The distance between the two sides remains vast. Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, launched in response to the initial bombardment, continues to disrupt one-fifth of global oil and gas traffic. Even after the April 8 ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, both nations have kept up naval harassment, seizing and intercepting each other’s vessels. The economic consequences are visible inside Iran, where prices have surged, jobs have vanished, and ordinary citizens speak of a grinding uncertainty that has settled over daily life.

That human cost is what lingers most sharply in accounts gathered from civilians across the region. In the coastal towns of Minab and Lamerd, missiles struck an elementary school and a high-school gymnasium during the opening hours of the war. Parents described rushing to scenes of bleeding children, some unconscious, others screaming. One father recounted finding his daughter’s volleyball team pulled from the burning wreckage. In Isfahan, residents woke to the sound of explosions and fighter jets, then spent weeks living with air-raid sirens and the constant fear that death could arrive without warning or front lines. Electricity flickered, routines collapsed, and the psychological weight of random violence settled in, as one resident described it, “like a fear that settles in your heart.”

These stories form the backdrop against which former Fox News host Tucker Carlson offered a remarkable insider portrait in a New York Times interview published this weekend. Carlson, once one of Trump’s most vocal advocates, has broken with the president over the Iran decision and publicly apologized for helping him win the 2024 election. Drawing on numerous private conversations, Carlson said his “strong read” was that Trump launched the war “against his will.”

“He knew – and I know he knew because I talked to him about it directly – that the potential consequences were profoundly bad; the end of his presidency to start,” Carlson told the Times. The former host described Trump as “more a hostage than a sovereign decision maker,” suggesting heavy Israeli influence had narrowed the president’s options. According to Carlson, Trump repeated that “everything’s gonna be okay,” even as he appeared to understand the political peril.

The war has indeed damaged Trump at home. His approval ratings have plunged, and the conflict’s unpopularity has surprised even some of his longtime allies. The administration’s insistence that Iran must first end its Hormuz blockade and accept strict nuclear limits before any broader deal has so far produced only stalemate. Pakistani mediation efforts in Islamabad collapsed when each side set preconditions the other would not accept.

Iranian officials, including those tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, say they remain on standby for a return to full-scale fighting if diplomacy fails. At the same time, Tehran has signaled willingness to talk. The 14-point plan represents the most detailed offer yet, yet Trump’s demand that Iran must first “pay a bigger price” suggests the gap between the two governments is as much psychological as substantive.

Whether the latest proposal can bridge that divide is uncertain. What is clear is the accumulating cost of a conflict that began with confident predictions of quick victory and has instead delivered civilian deaths, economic dislocation, and a president who, by the account of one of his closest former confidants, understood from the beginning that the war could destroy his political future. As Trump weighs his next move, the sirens and uncertainty that have become routine for millions in the Middle East continue.