‘We want to get this thing over with’: How Trump officials overcame skepticism of Iran to reach an agreement | CNN Politics

Over the past two weeks, President Donald Trump’s national security team met nearly every day to discuss an evolving agreement to end the Iran war, with many concerned that Tehran would not hold up its end of the bargain, administration officials directly involved in the negotiations said. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the “most pessimistic” about whether the Iranians would honor their commitments to make substantive concessions on their nuclear program, even if they agreed to negotiate on that issue, one of the officials said. But at various points, nearly ever senior official — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Trumps envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — raised serious reservations, the officials said. They ultimately reached Trump-driven consensus: “We want to get this thing over with,” an administration official directly involved in the talks told CNN. During an internal meeting at the White House roughly two weeks ago, they decided to press for a general agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and outline a broad framework on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. None ultimately