Trump, in rare admission, notes mistake on Iran video

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump has made a rare admission he was wrong — in claiming he saw a video of a U.S. cash payment going to Iran.

On the campaign trail this week, the Republican nominee has been dramatically describing a video that he says shows the U.S. paying off Iran as part of a deal to release U.S. sailors from Iranian custody.

The U.S. indeed paid that money to Tehran in January, in a publicly announced settlement of a decades-old international arbitration case dating back to when Iranians paid Washington for military equipment they never received.

[...] it may end the brewing controversy around his false claim — one that recalls his unsupported contention early in the campaign that he saw video of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks — instead of prolonging a potentially negative news story for the candidate.

To the frustration of Trump's aides and fellow Republicans, the celebrity businessman has all too often proven unable to let go of a bad story, often instead fueling it — like he did this past week when he escalated a flap with the parents of a slain U.S. soldier who was Muslim — at the expense of the campaign's message.

[...] several senior U.S. officials involved in the Iran negotiations have told The Associated Press they weren't aware of any such footage.