Shocking video shows Donald Trump discussing his Iran war plans in 1987
By Chris Melore
Daily Mail
Mar 16, 2026
Donald Trump's comments during a 1987 interview with late journalist Barbara Walters (Left) appear to show Trump's intentions of attacking Iran four decades ago
Footage has emerged of President Donald Trump warning of the threat posed by Iran's Supreme Leader and America's goals in a war with the nation, 39 years ago.
The video captured an interview with late journalist and television personality Barbara Walters in December 1987, where Trump appeared to predict the current crisis in the Middle East and laid out his war plans if he were president.
At age 41, Trump said: 'The next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations and I mean grab it and keep it and get back your losses because this country has lost plenty because of Iran.'
Trump also dismissed the possibility that Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, would send in troops to defend their allies in Iran, adding that he was more concerned about Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling him 'something like nobody's ever seen.'
The real estate mogul's prophetic comments came four decades before the US and Israel would launch a devastating military campaign that has already killed Iran's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
'You're going to have a war, and it's going to start in the Middle East,' Trump predicted to Walters during the interview.
The Walters interview on ABC's 20/20 also revealed how the future two-term president had spent thousands on newspaper ads criticizing the US for protecting foreign oil tankers without compensation when Iran was attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Today, oil prices have surged as fighting in the Persian Gulf has spread to the sea, with Iranian drones targeting the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is once again considering using the US Navy to protect oil shipments headed west.
A tanker engulfed in fierce flames after strike by Iran
The unearthed interview featured excerpts from Trump's appearance at New Hampshire's Portsmouth Rotary Club in October 1987, a luncheon where influential people could test the political waters before a potential run for office.
In a stunning echo of Trump's future political addresses, the billionaire was captured saying: 'I'm personally tired of seeing this great country of ours being ripped off.'
Decades later, Trump's remarks at the event have been called his 'first campaign speech,' as the president has continually called for European countries to spend more on their own defense.
Trump's 1987 call for a tougher stance on Iran and more financial backing from US allies in Europe and throughout the region has eerily mirrored the current situation, with the president demanding NATO send warships to police the Strait of Hormuz.
The president insisted on Saturday that Britain, France and China should 'send ships to the area so that the Strait will no longer be threatened by a nation that has been totally decapitated.'
Speaking to the Financial Times, Trump said: 'It's only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there.
'We have a thing called NATO,' Trump continued. 'We've been very sweet. We didn't have to help them with Ukraine… but we helped them.'
'Now we'll see if they help us. Because I've long said that we'll be there for them, but they won't be there for us. And I'm not sure that they'd be there.'
Pictured: Oil tankers sail near the Strait of Hormuz on March 11, 2026
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is thought to have already pushed back on this demand, reportedly saying that the British military was only ready to deploy minesweeping drones to clear out the important shipping lane.
In the 1987 interview, Trump floated the idea of forcing other nations to pay the US to protect the world's oil shipments sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, calling the fee for the Navy's work 'a ransom.'
'We made a huge mistake by going into the Persian Gulf without having negotiated a fair and reasonable deal before with all of the beneficiaries of the Persian Gulf,' Trump said.
'I would have said, "hey folks, let's get together, how much you're gonna pay for this?" and, you know what, give you a little secret, Barbara, they'll pay a ransom.'
As for Trump's plans for seizing Iran's oil, something that has not become reality yet, the New York businessman asked the Portsmouth Rotary Club: 'Why couldn't we go in and take over some of their oil, which is along the sea?'
The US and Israeli militaries have been carrying out devastating bombing raids on Iran. As the conflict has escalated, oil prices worldwide have spiked
When Walters pressed a 41-year-old Trump on how he would carry out such an operation, the future president would not definitively say he would send in ground troops to take Iran's oil fields - something Trump has still not committed to doing in 2026.
Despite not revealing the details in 1987, Trump's war plan may be playing itself out in real time, as the US military has already bombed Iran's biggest and most important oil facilities, the Kharg Island oil terminal.
The small island in the Persian Gulf handles approximately 90 percent of Iran's crude oil exports, totaling over a million barrels per day.
US forces have struck military targets on Kharg Island in March 2026, but have reportedly avoided hitting the oil facilities themselves to prevent a total shutdown that could spike global oil prices even further.
No comments:
Post a Comment