“Trump denies Axios report that he offered Iran sanctions relief”, 29 September 2026 (Photo via The Hill — the original report)
As it ran on the front
Saturday the twenty-sixth, the president told reporters at the White House exactly what he intended, and it was decisive: "I'm rejecting their deal," rejecting Iran's seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and enter a ceasefire. Officials told the Wall Street Journal the bombing could resume after the midterms — a sound strategic pause, a president managing the calendar prudently, and also, factually, a war rescheduled around a campaign — I'll leave that there.
By the weekend Axios reported something else about that same Saturday: that the offer on the table had included sanctions relief and access to frozen Iranian funds. Monday, on Truth Social, the president called it untrue, a hoax, demanded a correction, and said he has "offered them NOTHING." A clean denial, the kind that settles a story — except the thing being denied and the thing being rejected two days earlier are, as far as the public record shows, the same conversation. I don't have a way to make both statements true at once, and neither, it turns out, does he.…
…(cont) Monday also carried the CBS report that the two governments are still trading messages through mediators, 36 days from the midterms, rejection or no rejection. And the president's own candidates aren't waiting for him to sort it out. CBS counted Republicans in competitive races now calling for the war to end quickly; Common Dreams had already tallied members putting distance between themselves and him as his numbers fell; NBC's politics desk noted the one who said so loudest got a brushback for it. Call it party discipline holding — no.
Tuesday, Iran said it is still waiting on a response to the ceasefire plan — the plan rejected Saturday, the plan the president says was not an offer of anything. He told CBS the two sides are talking through mediators. He also told CBS he's offered nothing. Both quotes, same day, same war.
Dot's box downstairs will sort what slips and who pays for it. Up here, the record just says: rejected, denied, still waiting, still talking, 36 days.
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“He rejects the deal Saturday, swears by Monday there was never a deal to reject, and by Tuesday Iran's still sitting by the phone waiting on an answer to the thing that supposedly never happened. That's not diplomacy, that's a guy betting nobody keeps a calendar. And somewhere in his own stock filings there's money riding on the same oil prices this war keeps setting records on.”
“Look, the president rejected a bad deal because it handed a hostile regime sanctions relief they hadn't earned — strong, principled, exactly what you'd want — and also he says there was no deal on the table at all, so he rejected nothing, which means there's nothing to have rejected, which, wait, that's not what "I'm rejecting their deal" means. Did I say that? That doesn't sound like me.”
With the 2026 midterm elections weeks away, some Republican congressional candidates are breaking with President Trump over the war in Iran. CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto and CBS News political contributor Kyle Kondik take a look at the situation.
President Trump on Monday denied reporting from Axios that suggested he is willing to provide Iran with sanctions relief and unfreeze Iranian funds so that the regime can re-examine its nuclear program. "Axios just released a story that 'Trump' offered Sanctions Relief and Frozen Funds to Iran," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This is…
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to slam what he called a “fake” Axios story about him offering up sanctions relief and currently frozen funds to Iran in exchange for promises on their nuclear program. “Axios just released a story that ‘Trump’ offered Sanctions Relief and Frozen Funds to Iran.
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