Administration

Trump gets roaring ovation on Iran at Turning Point event

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by Mallory Wilson and Julia Manchester - 04/17/26 7:47 PM ET

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by Mallory Wilson and Julia Manchester - 04/17/26 7:47 PM ET

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President Trump was met with an at times a roaring ovation from a crowd at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona on Friday during several opportunities where he detailed his policies on Iran.

It marked a window into how some young conservatives are receiving Trump’s message on the international conflict.

“Would anybody like to hear about Iran a little bit?” he said to the crowd.

“We’ll remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100 percent complete and fully signed and this process, we’re getting along well. But who knows?” he said. “Who knows with anyone? But who knows with Iran in particular.”

“This process should go very quickly and that most of the points are already negotiated and agreed to,” he said. “You’ll be very happy.”

He reiterated that the United States would go in with Iran to get the “nuclear dust” and bring it back, and that Iran will “never have a nuclear weapon.” Nuclear dust is a nontechnical term that refers to enriched uranium.

The “Build the Red Wall” event was aimed to get voters riled up ahead of midterms, and Trump hit key talking points like blowing up Iran’s nuclear facilities, winning all seven swing states in the 2024 election, tax cuts and immigration, among other topics.

However, as Trump spoke to the crowd, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X that the Strait of Hormuz would close again hours after the foreign minister and Trump said it would open. But only Trump insisted that a U.S. blockade on ships going to and from Iranian ports would remain.

“With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open,” Qalibaf wrote in a post on X, adding that passage through the strait will be “conducted based on the ‘designated route’ and with Iranian authorization.’”

“Whether the strait is open or closed and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not by social media,” he continued.

Trump said hours earlier that Iran had said the Strait of Hormuz was “open for business” but that the U.S. blockade would remain in effect.

The president’s announcement followed Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announcing that the Strait of Hormuz was open “for all commercial vessels… for the remaining period of ceasefire.”

In another notable turn of events on Friday, the Fars News Agency, an Iranian state news outlet, questioned Araghchi’s post, characterizing it as an “unexpected tweet about the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz, and following Trump’s subsequent nervous saber-rattling, Iranian society has been plunged into an atmosphere of confusion.”

The stock market rallied in response to the news, while oil prices dropped 12 percent following the news.

The Iranian leaders post on Friday came well after global markets closed for the weekend.

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