President Donald Trump lashed out over what he called a “false story” — but then essentially confirmed that story during a scattershot response.

The president has been attending the 52nd Group of 7 (G7) Summit at Evian-le-Bains in France this week, participating in multilateral meetings that have prompted many photo ops.

One of those was a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, during which he took questions from the press. One reporter pressed Trump about a provision of the leaked Iran Memorandum of Understanding that dealt with a $300 billion reconstruction fund:

The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.

Trump issued strenuous denials to a question that wasn’t asked, repeatedly insisting that the United States is not “putting up 10 cents” — but then describing a process that would permit others to invest:

REPORTER: It’s been reported that it includes a $300 billion dollar reconstruction fund–.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: False!

REPORTER: –funded by gulf allies, that’s false?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, false. False.

People are–. People– you can invest if you want. I mean, what am I going to do, say nobody’s ever allowed to invest?

No, we’re not investing. We’re not putting up 10 cents.

And people can decide to do that, but that’s up to them.

I mean do you want me to say nobody is ever allowed to invest in a country? I’ll say it with Egypt. Nobody’s allowed to invest in Egypt. Am I supposed to say that?

REPORTER: I’m asking whether…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are not investing in it, and we do not have a fund.

REPORTER: Are you asking a Gulf countries to–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, I’m not. I’m– if they do it fine, but I would say they won’t be doing it for a while until they find out the behavior–.

It’s a behavior thing, but we are not inve– That’s a false story that got picked up incorrectly from a statement that was pretty well made, I think.

Maybe a little bit—. Could have been a little more accurate, frankly, but it’s a story–. We are not investing ten cents.

Don’t forget. There’s never been anybody that’s been so tough on Iran. This should have been done by Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama. It should have done by Biden. It should’ve been done by Bush. It could’ve been by a lot of people.

Watch above via G7 2026.

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