US President Donald Trump is leaning hard into economic pressure against Iran instead of rushing into more military strikes. In recent comments, he made it clear that he is watching the situation closely but keeping things low key for now.
Trump told Axios that the United States is only semi-negotiating with Tehran. He pointed out that Iran is dealing with massive inflation of more than 300 percent and simply has no money left. On Monday in the Oval Office, he went further and said Iran is totally broke and cannot even pay its soldiers. He repeated the same claim about the extreme inflation on Truth Social this week.
The president also stressed that there is no big hurry to act because America already has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. That waterway remains a major flashpoint for oil shipping. At the same time, Tehran is trying to lock down the passage while Washington keeps pressure on Iranian ports through its own measures.
Experts say the picture on the ground is harsh. Michael O’Hanlon from the Brookings Institution noted that Iran cannot ship oil at any meaningful level. The country still labors under heavy sanctions and cannot access its overseas assets. The real question, he added, is how much the Iranian leaders actually care about the economic pain. They care some, but not a lot.
Washington has already moved against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with new measures at the end of July. Reports say Trump’s advisors have shown him data on the impact of existing sanctions, and he is now considering tightening them further. This marks a clear shift from earlier threats of the most devastating strikes since World War II.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the renewed push for sanctions a retreat. He said that whenever Washington cannot pursue diplomacy, it falls back on more restrictions. He warned that this habit could hurt America’s own chances of finding a less damaging way out of the crisis.
Trump compared the whole situation to a game of chess. Iranian officials replied that their side has proven to be professional chess players. For now, the American president is betting that economic pressure will do more damage than new bombs, but he has not taken military options off the table completely.
