The clock that was ticking toward a dramatic new escalation in the Iran war may now be counting down to a deal that would end it.

That’s the latest stunning turn of events delivered by President Donald Trump’s social media account.

Trump announced Monday that he was postponing his threatened military strikes against Iranian power plants for at least five days, hours ahead of his deadline for Tehran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping route.

He said the U.S. and Iran were in “productive” talks toward a “complete and total” resolution of the war, though Tehran denied any direct talks.

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Now in its fourth week, the conflict has consumed the Middle East, pushed up the prices of energy and food and threatened the global economy with a far-reaching crisis.

Trump’s reversal delays what many feared would be a significant new escalation for civilians across the region.

Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry appeared to counter Trump’s version of events, though, saying in a statement published by the semiofficial news agency Mehr News that there was “no dialogue between Tehran and Washington.”

It said Trump’s delay was “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans” but acknowledged “there are initiatives from regional countries to reduce tensions.” Iranian state media said Trump had “backed down” after Iran vowed swift retaliation for any attacks on its energy infrastructure.

This article is part of “Unaffordable America,” a series examining rising economic inequality in the U.S. and the policies that drive it.

How’s the economy?

Not bad if you’re rich.

Demand for luxury yachts and private jets is surging thanks to last year’s tax law. Sales of $10 million-plus mansions are booming as stocks hit new highs. And the wealthy and powerful will get to enjoy a new ballroom for galas at the White House.

What if you aren’t rich?

The typical American can’t afford the median-priced home. A new car is out of reach for many, with the average monthly payment exceeding $700. Food banks are seeing a growing number of people skipping meals because they can’t afford groceries, and more middle-class Americans are selling their plasma to make ends meet.

The divide between rich and poor in America is the widest it’s been in at least a generation — and growing. The amount of wealth held by the top 1% increased at more than double the rate of the bottom 90% in the first nine months of last year, according to Federal Reserve figures. At the very top, Elon Musk’s fortune is approaching that of legendary 19th-century businessman John D. Rockefeller when looked at as a share of the overall U.S. economy.

A variety of factors have shaped the struggles of everyday Americans and fueled the gains of the wealthy: The pandemic disrupted the housing market, making it harder to afford a home. Stocks have surged, driven by enthusiasm over AI. Manufacturing has waned, hiring has slipped and costs continue to rise.

President Donald Trump’s policies are amplifying these trends. One year into his second term, his administration has cut programs helping lower-income households while advancing policies benefiting the wealthy and corporations. He’s signed legislation to cut food stamps and Medicaid benefits and put new restrictions on low-income housing assistance and student loans. To cope with higher costs from tariffs, he has suggested Americans buy fewer dolls for their children.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has given billions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy and loosened regulations on banks while easing rules around cryptocurrency, which he’s benefited from personally.

“Donald Trump talks a lot about the working class, his MAGA base is primarily working class, but if you look at the data, the working class is doing very badly in the second Trump administration,” said Robert Reich, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the Labor Department during the Clinton administration. “The real growth in the second Trump administration has been in corporate profits and in the wealth of the people at the top.”

Trump has defended his economic record, referring to concerns over affordability as a hoax and blaming weakness in the economy on Democrats. He’s dismissed numerous polls showing increasing economic anxiety, saying in his State of the Union address in February that he has ushered in a “golden age of America.” As evidence, he cited rising 401(k) balances, a drop in mortgage rates and lower gas prices — though gas prices have since spiked after his attacks on Iran disrupted the global flow of oil. The S&P 500, fueled by an AI boom, grew around 13% during the first year of his second term.

Trump’s allies argue that, while it may take time, all Americans will benefit from last summer’s tax cuts, with the average refund rising by around $1,000 this year, according to data cited by the White House. They also say that Trump’s still-evolving tariffs will eventually boost U.S. manufacturing jobs, which declined last year, noting announcements by foreign governments and corporations about plans to invest in the U.S.

A White House official also pointed to signs of improvement, including a lower rate of inflation than in the past several years and wages that are rising faster than inflation.

Some economists, including those who have served in past Republican administrations, have questioned whether those improvements will be enough to offset pressures elsewhere in the economy, including from a slowing job market, which shed 92,000 jobs in February across a broad range of industries.

For “Unaffordable America,” a yearlong series on the causes and effects of rising economic inequality, NBC News asked readers how they were faring and heard from hundreds of people. In interviews and written responses, many described struggling to find a job and afford higher food prices and health care costs, while others said they were benefiting from gains in the stock market and lower interest rates.

The Defense Department will remove media offices from the Pentagon after a federal judge sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit challenging limits on reporters’ access to the building, a department official announced Monday.

An area of the Pentagon known as “Correspondents’ Corridor” that reporters have used for decades to cover the U.S. military will close immediately, department spokesperson Sean Parnell said. Journalists will eventually be able to work from an “annex” outside the building, which he said “will be available when ready.” He offered no detail about how long that will take.

The Pentagon Press Association said the announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”

“At such a critical time, we ask why the Pentagon is choosing to restrict vital press freedoms that help inform all Americans,” the association said.

The new policy is the latest dispute over press access to President Donald Trump’s administration, which has limited legacy media while boosting conservative and pro-Trump outlets.

The Times sued the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December, claiming the agency’s new credentialing policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process. Dozens of reporters had walked out of the building rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., last week sided with the newspaper. He ordered the Pentagon to reinstate the press credentials of seven Times journalists and struck down some of the agency’s restrictions on news reporting.

Friedman said the “undisputed evidence” shows that the policy is designed to weed out “disfavored journalists” and replace them with those who are “on board and willing to serve” the government, a clear instance of illegal viewpoint discrimination.

Parnell said the Defense Department disagrees with the ruling and is pursuing an appeal. He said security concerns prompted restrictions on press access, a claim that journalists have rejected.

Under the latest Pentagon rules announced Monday, journalists will still have access to the Pentagon for press conferences and interviews arranged through the department’s public affairs team, but they will have to be escorted, Parnell wrote on social media.

The current Pentagon press corps is comprised mostly of conservative outlets that agreed to the policy. Reporters from outlets that refused to consent to the new rules, including from The Associated Press, have continued reporting on the military.

The AP, meanwhile, is awaiting a decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals on its separate lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration. The AP contends that Trump’s White House team punished it by reducing its access to presidential events because the outlet hasn’t followed his lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. stocks surged Monday, after President Donald Trump announced that he was postponing all military strikes on Iranian power plants for a five-day period.

Trump said the U.S. and Iran had engaged in what he called “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”

Reporting about the nature and timing of these “conversations” evolved over the course of the day, and included conflicting accounts from various stakeholders.

But for markets, the talks offered a glimmer of hope that a path toward the de-escalation of the conflict — and the oil crisis it created — were within reach.

Iranian state media responded to Trump’s post by saying the U.S. president has “backed down” after Iran’s firm response.

Trump, however, said that Iran had “called” to discuss trying to resolve the war diplomatically.

“They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make it,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Florida.

The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial transit point for global oil supplies, could be “open very soon,” Trump added, but he provided few details.

Experts and analysts quickly pointed out that even if the fighting were to end this week, it would still take months for the strait to reopen.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures initially soared about 3% on Trump’s post shortly after 7 a.m. ET. By the time the closing bell rang, both indexes still recorded significant gains, but less than futures had indicated early in the morning. The S&P 500 closed up 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite ended the day higher by 1.4%.

The gains were also broad based, with every S&P sector ending the day higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average also shot higher immediately after Trump’s statement. By the end of the trading session, the Dow was higher by 631 points, and the Russell 2000 index closed up 2.7%.

It was the best day for the S&P, Nasdaq and Dow since Feb. 6.

Oil prices plunged around 11% and U.S. crude oil settled for the day at $88.13 per barrel. International Brent crude oil fell to $99.94 per barrel, settling under $100 per barrel for the first time since March 11.

Still, crude oil prices have risen more than 30% since the war began on Feb. 28, and more than 50% since the start of the year.

Trump’s Monday announcement on social media came after the president on Saturday said that he had given the Iranian regime 48 hours to “fully open, without threat, the Strait of Hormuz.” That ultimatum was set to expire Monday night.

U.S. natural gas prices dropped 6% Monday, European natural gas futures slid 9% and heating oil prices dropped 12%. Heating oil futures can also be a proxy for the price of jet fuel.

U.S. Treasury bonds also rose in the minutes after Trump’s comments, and the yields which guide borrowing rates for consumers dropped after posting big moves higher on Thursday and Friday on rising inflation fears stemming from soaring energy prices. Yields were down only slightly in mid-morning trading after the statements from Iranian media and Trump.

Investors were already grappling with how to trade headlines about the war before Monday’s volatility.

“Investors have two related problems in pricing risks around the Gulf war,” UBS economist Paul Donovan said in a note on Monday before Trump’s post. “Statements from top U.S. administration officials give different and at times contradictory assessments of the war; in the absence of measurable objectives, this is all markets have to respond to. The result is volatility.”

WASHINGTON — On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., discussed an off-ramp with President Donald Trump to reopen TSA and end the long lines and delays at airports.

It would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE, which Democrats have refused to support without new limitations on immigration enforcement operations, two sources with knowledge of the conversation told NBC News.

White House aides initially conveyed the idea to Trump and, after that briefing, Thune spoke with the president, the two sources said. Thune discussed the idea with Republicans on Capitol Hill, one of the sources said. The second source said it’s seen by numerous Republicans as a viable path to break the logjam.

ICE would be funded separately by Republicans in a party-line “reconciliation” bill that can pass without the need for any Democratic support later in the year.

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than a month, and while key operations, such as TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are still operating, many of those employees are working without pay. As NBC News reported this weekend, more than 400 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also shut down, but its employees are being paid through Trump’s big beautiful bill passed last year.

Republicans believe that the off-ramp Trump and Thune discussed would win support from Democrats, who have offered to fund noncontroversial parts of the Department of Homeland Security on the Senate floor while the two parties continue to negotiate on immigration.

But Trump rejected it — as he made clear in a Truth Social post Sunday night.

“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump wrote, while instead calling on Republicans to “Kill the Filibuster, and stay in D.C. for Easter, if necessary.”

Trump’s first two ideas aren’t viable. Democrats are determined to sink the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have enough support to pass. And Republicans have made clear they lack the votes to nuke the filibuster. They may, however, cancel recess if there’s still no deal by the end of this week.

The conversation with Thune and Trump was first reported by Punchbowl News.

Speaking Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, the president doubled down on his demands to pair Homeland Security funding with the voting bill.

“You don’t have to take a fast vote. Don’t worry about Easter, going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus. OK, make this one for Jesus,” Trump said, adding: “The most important part of homeland security is voter ID and proof of citizenship. Nobody can vote on Homeland Security without voter ID or proof of citizenship.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office said that Democrats will again seek unanimous consent to fund just the TSA on the Senate floor Monday, for the eighth time.

Republicans have so far rejected those stand-alone bills.

If Trump were to change his mind and accept the Thune-GOP idea, it carries benefits for both parties. For Republicans, they could avoid giving into Democratic demands, such as requiring immigration enforcement officers to remove their masks and requiring judicial warrants to conduct raids. For Democrats, they could keep their fingerprints off ICE funding, which has become toxic with their base since Homeland Security agents killed protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

“We can be out of this shutdown by the end of the week,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Sunday. “Here’s what we do. The Democrats are amenable to opening up everything at DHS but ICE. We should accept that. The very next day, we should file a budget resolution through reconciliation that funds ICE as we deem appropriate. We don’t need Democratic votes to do that.”

Democrats are also planning to seize on the Trump social media post to argue that he owns the shutdown and travel chaos.

Reconciliation bills are arduous, requiring near-unanimous support among Republicans, especially given the tiny House majority. There has been deep skepticism that the party could pull it off, even if it tried. But needing to fund an agency like ICE would raise the impetus to use that path.

Under the “big, beautiful bill” passed by Republicans last year, ICE received a cash infusion of about $75 billion for the next four years to help carry out Trump’s mass deportation program.

The path comes with another possible upside for the White House: Some Trump allies have proposed reconciliation to approve supplemental funding for Trump’s war in Iran. It’s not clear that could win enough Democratic support.