Amid a day with dozens of threats and escalating rhetoric toward Iran, President Trump took a significant step back on one key issue for energy markets: a US campaign to control Iran’s oil.

“I’d like to take the oil because it’s there for the taking,” the president told reporters at the White House easter egg roll. “Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home.”

The president said multiple times on Monday that he personally wants to take the oil. “We’d make plenty of money,” he said

But the president repeatedly acknowledged that there might not be political will for such a move, which would likely require a ground operation, saying, “I just don’t think the people of the United States would really understand.”