A video authentically shows U.S. President Donald Trump in 1987 saying that the U.S. should “go in” and take Iran’s oil.
Since the beginning of the Iran war in late February 2026, people have shared a video allegedly showing U.S. President Donald Trump in 1987 advocating to “go in” and take the Middle Eastern country’s oil.
In the purported clip, Trump says of Iran, “You take their oil. That’s what I’d do,” adding, “You go in.” Journalist Barbara Walters asks how he would take the oil, inquiring, “Would you take a chance in a war?” Trump responds, appearing to say a war would be inevitable even if the U.S. did nothing, telling her: “You’re going to have a war. … You’re going to have a war by being weak.”
Users shared (archived) the video (archived) on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived) and X (archived), among other platforms.
In sum, the decades-old clip is authentic, meaning that it was not created with artificial intelligence or other digital fakery. Trump truly advocated for going into Iran in 1987, saying, “You take the oil. That’s what I’d do.”
Trump posted the video on Truth Social on March 30, as some users accurately pointed out (archived). The video in his post begins with him saying, “because I’m running for the presidency.” A longer video shows he fully says, “I’m not here today because I’m running for the presidency.”
The clip originates from an episode of ABC’s “20/20” featuring a profile of Trump by Walters. Newspaper archives pin (archived) the segment’s apparent air date as Dec. 11, 1987.
Snopes emailed the White House to ask whether the Trump administration wished to respond to users sharing the video and will update this article if we receive further details.
Days after reposting the clip, on April 3, Trump posted a message matching his stance from nearly 39 years before, saying he wanted to take Iran’s oil:
With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A “GUSHER” FOR THE WORLD??? President DONALD J. TRUMP
(Donald Trump via Truth Social)
Transcript of Trump’s 1987 remarks on Iran
A lengthier video from the “20/20” segment appears on Vimeo and YouTube, with the part about Iran beginning just after the two-minute mark.
The longer clip features more details, including journalist Charles Bremner remarking on Trump’s stance:
WALTERS (
voice-over ): But does Donald Trump want to be president? TRUMP (speaking to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Rotary Club): I’m not here today because I’m running for the presidency. I’m here because I’m personally tired of seeing this great country of ours being ripped off.
WALTERS (voice-over): But as far as Trump is concerned, our allies are only part of the problem. The real culprit is Iran.
TRUMP (speaking to the Rotary Club): Why couldn’t we go in and take over some of their oil, which is along the sea?
WALTERS (speaking to Trump): How would you do that? Would you send in the Marines? Would you take a chance in a war?
TRUMP: Let ’em have Iran. You take their oil. That’s what I’d do.
WALTERS: But how?
TRUMP: How?
WALTERS: I mean, do we want a war? What do you mean, we take their oil?
TRUMP: You go in… you go in…
WALTERS: How do we go in?
TRUMP: You’re going to have a war. Barbara… You’re going to have a war by being weak.
WALTERS: OK. How do we go in? What do we do?
TRUMP: Excuse me.
WALTERS: Yeah.
TRUMP: You’re going to have a war, and it’s going to start in the Middle East.
WALTERS: What if the Soviet Union said, “You do this to Iran, we’re going to come in?”
TRUMP: I don’t believe they’d do it. 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.
BREMNER (speaking to off-camera interviewer): Donald Trump seems to have a Clint Eastwood approach to foreign policy.
WALTERS (voice-over): Charles Bremner is the New York correspondent for the London Times. He wrote this article that appeared in the Times the week following Trump’s New Hampshire speech.
BREMNER: He recommended strikes at Iranian oil fields. This obviously would create a great chain reaction across the area if it ever took place. And obviously, European allies would be appalled by any such behavior.
We messaged Bremner on X to ask whether he wished to share any new comment about the parallels of the video from the past lining up with the war and will update this article if we receive a response.
The report also notes that Trump took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times (archived) and other newspapers in September 1987 with the title “There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure.” The ad displays an open letter from Trump “on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves.” It does not mention Iran.
For further reading regarding Trump in the 1980s, we previously reported about whether a photo shows Trump in Moscow, when he was 41, at the invitation of Yuri Dubinin, the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. We’ve also covered a number of instances in which Trump has posted inauthentic images and videos, often generated with AI, on social media.
