Trump says it's 'too soon' to talk about seizing Iran's oil — but doesn't rule it out

In a phone call with NBC News on Monday, Trump weighed in on Iran's new leader, the Texas Senate race and his push to get the SAVE America Act through Congress.

President Donald Trump on Monday left open the prospect of acquiring Iranian oil as the U.S. proceeds with a war officials have said is aimed at depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon and defanging it so that it no longer poses a threat to the U.S. or Middle East neighbors.

Trump told NBC News that he did not want to discuss whether he would like the U.S. to seize Iranian oil, but added: “Certainly people have talked about it.”

He mentioned Venezuela, where the U.S. launched a raid in January that captured the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. Since then, the Trump administration has taken steps to secure and tap Venezuela’s oil reserves. In his State of the Union speech last month, Trump said that the U.S. has already gotten more than 80 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.

“You look at Venezuela,” Trump told NBC News. “People have thought about it, but it’s too soon to talk about that.”

Taking control of some portion of Iranian oil could strain U.S. relations with China. About 80% of Iran's crude oil exports go to China, the world's second-largest economy and America's biggest geopolitical rival.