Trump Says He Wants to Seize Iranian Oil, WSJ Says Uranium Too

President Trump told Financial Times (Center bias) on Sunday that he wants to "take the oil" in Iran. On the same day, The Wall Street Journal (Center) reported he is considering deploying US troops to seize 1,000 pounds of Iran's uranium.

FT Report: Trump told FT, "To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: 'Why are you doing that?' But they're stupid people." He added, "Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don't. We have a lot of options. It would also mean we had to be there for a while." When asked about Kharg Island's defenses, he said, "I don't think they have any defense. We could take it very easily." 

WSJ Report: The Journal reported Trump's considerations for seizing uranium and cited unnamed "US officials" as its source. It added that Trump told reporters on Sunday that if Iran doesn't give in to US demands, "they're not going to have a country," and that it must "give us the nuclear dust."

For Context: Over the weekend, The Journal and Washington Post (Lean Left) reported the US is preparing to send 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East and conduct several weeks of ground operations in Iran, respectively. On March 13, the US struck over 90 targets on Kharg Island, Iran's main oil processing hub. On March 16, Trump said, "We don't need oil… [the US] has more than double what anybody else, in terms of oil production [has]." He added that the US struck Iran for its "good allies" in the region, including Israel.

Trump's Past Claims: In June 2025, Trump said US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities "totally obliterated" the locations it struck, though some media outlets and the Iranian state pushed back on his claim. On February 24, four days before the US bombed Iran again, the White House confirmed this, though since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump has claimed one of the US objectives in Iran is preventing the country from getting a nuclear weapon.

How The Media Covered It: Trump's comments regarding oil to FT were widely covered by mainstream outlets on Monday morning. At the same time, the Journal's report on uranium was less widely covered by the Western mainstream. WSJ and Fox News (Right) both framed potential US ground operations to seize uranium and oil, respectively, as risky. Fox offered several split perspectives from analysts, with some saying the economic impact on Iran could be immediate and others saying it could take a while.

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