President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States had achieved “regime change” in Iran through the killing of Iranian leaders and teased a “very significant prize” provided by Iran to the U.S. in the course of ongoing negotiations.

“We have, really, regime change. This is a change in the regime, because the leaders are all very different than the ones that we started off with that created all those problems,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Asked if he was hopeful that diplomatic negotiations would achieve a lasting ceasefire, the commander-in-chief replied, “I think we’re going to end it. I can’t tell you for sure. You know, I don’t like to say this — this war has been won. The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news. … We’ve won this war.”

Trump also acknowledged on Tuesday that Jared Kushner, White House Special  Envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are involved in peace talks while expressing optimism that the current leadership in Iran was capable of making a deal. 

“We’re talking to the right leaders, and they want to make a deal so badly,” Trump said without specifying which Iranian officials his administration was engaged with. 

The president said he reached the conclusion that “we’re dealing with the right people” after receiving a “gift” from Iranian leaders that was “oil and gas related” and “worth a tremendous amount of money.” Trump declined to say what exactly the gift was, but said the offering was “related to the flow, to the Strait [of Hormuz].” 

The Iranians “gave us a present, and the present arrived today,” said.. “It was a very significant prize.” 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in remarks following the president’s comments that Pentagon leaders “see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs.”

Trump then responded by noting that Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine were the “only two people” in his administration who “were quite disappointed” when he suggested that the war could be resolved soon.

The president revealed that after telling the two men that he thought “this thing’s going to be settled very soon,” both men replied “Oh, that’s too bad.”

“Pete didn’t want it to be settled. These guys are doing a great job. That’s a good attitude though, right?” Trump said of Hegseth and Caine. “They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing.”