WASHINGTON, May 24, 2026 — Donald Trump Jr. declared Sunday that his father is on the verge of a historic diplomatic victory, calling an emerging Iran nuclear framework “a HUGE win for America” and saying the president is achieving what virtually no world leader believed was possible.
“This is a HUGE win for America,” Trump Jr. wrote on X. “We need to ignore the people who won’t be happy until there is a ground invasion of Iran. My father promised to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and that’s exactly what he is achieving!!!”
The comments came after CBS News reported that U.S. officials believe Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has approved the broad template for a draft agreement — one in which Iran would agree in principle to dispose of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in exchange for the United States lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.
What the Deal Involves
According to CBS News, a White House official said the U.S. believes the emerging agreement is superior to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated under former President Barack Obama — which allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium up to certain levels. The new framework would require Iran to commit to disposing of its highly enriched uranium entirely and to resolving broader nuclear issues.
Iran currently holds approximately 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent — close to weapons-grade — which the International Atomic Energy Agency has assessed gives Tehran the capability to produce a nuclear weapon within weeks. Options under discussion include transferring the material abroad or diluting it, according to reporting by the New York Times. Neither side disputes that the stockpiled enriched material will be disposed of — the remaining question is how, CBS News reported.
As a condition of the deal, the United States would lift its naval blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports — a closure that has driven up global oil prices and affected approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. A senior U.S. official told reporters Sunday that the agreement “will be signed in the coming days,” though not immediately, and that Supreme Leader Khamenei has given “a general agreement” to the terms, according to the Times of Israel.
‘Nobody Thought Trump Could Do This’
Trump Jr.’s post came in response to a broader assessment posted on X by Jennifer Jacobs of CBS News, who broke the supreme leader approval story, and commentary noting the near-universal skepticism that had surrounded Trump’s Iran diplomacy from the outset.
The commentary Trump Jr. was amplifying noted that “basically nobody — I repeat, nobody (from senators to world leaders and more with very rare exception) — thought President Trump could accomplish all of this,” and that most analysts had predicted Trump would settle for a “watered down version of the JCPOA.” The post named the Prime Minister of Greece, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and the Prime Minister of Qatar among the handful of leaders who believed Trump could pull off a stronger deal.
Trump Jr. used that context to draw a sharp contrast between his father’s critics — particularly those calling for military escalation — and what he framed as a transformative diplomatic achievement. “We need to ignore the people who won’t be happy until there is a ground invasion of Iran,” he wrote.
How the Deal Came Together
The framework emerged from months of negotiations conducted through multiple intermediaries. Pakistan served as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran, with Pakistani officials working to extend a ceasefire and bridge gaps between the two sides. Oman also played a facilitation role, with Iran’s deputy foreign minister conveying messages through Oman’s foreign minister.
The U.S. negotiating team included Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Saturday in New Delhi that there “may be news” on the deal — a signal that materialized with Trump’s Truth Social announcement that an agreement had been “largely negotiated.”
The deal was triggered in part by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, which degraded Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and set the stage for negotiations. Trump had warned Iran it would face renewed strikes if it did not meet U.S. terms. “We’re going to either make sure they don’t have a nuclear weapon or we’re going to have to do something very drastic,” Trump said Thursday.
The JCPOA Comparison
Central to Trump Jr.’s celebration — and to the broader Republican response — is the contrast with Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium to civilian-grade levels, imposed a 15-year sunset on enrichment limits, and did not require Iran to surrender its stockpile. Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 during his first term, calling it the worst deal ever negotiated.
The emerging 2026 framework, by contrast, would require Iran to dispose of its entire enriched uranium stockpile — including the 60 percent enriched material that puts it within weeks of weapons capability. A White House official told CBS News the administration believes the new agreement “is a better deal than the 2015 deal.” House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed that sentiment Sunday, writing on X that “President Trump is the ONLY one who could have gotten Iran — the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism — to the negotiating table.”
Skeptics and Sticking Points
Not all Republicans shared Trump Jr.’s enthusiasm. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo compared the emerging deal to the Obama-era playbook Saturday, calling it “not remotely America First” — a post that drew a profanity-laced rebuke from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who told Pompeo to “shut his stupid mouth” and said he was “not read into anything that’s happening.”
Israel expressed deep concern about a framework that would give Iran time before resolving nuclear issues, leave terror proxies intact, and provide sanctions relief without an immediate commitment to export its uranium stockpile, according to the Times of Israel. Iran’s own state media pushed back on aspects of Trump’s characterization, with Fars News — affiliated with the IRGC — saying the Strait of Hormuz situation was “inconsistent with reality” as described by the White House.
The final agreement, a senior U.S. official said, would be signed in the coming days. Nothing, the official cautioned, is done until it is done.