President Donald Trump issued a strong threat against Iran, saying the U.S. will be implementing a “crushing” economic operation that he likened to D-Day.
“No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me,” he wrote on Truth Social. “TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”
Trump called on other countries with financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities that provide Iran with any sort of “lifeline” to also cut the country off economically, or else they will face “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”
“You know who you are,” he said.
Trump went on to say that the operation will be an “ECONOMIC D-DAY” and the U.S. will need the help of its allies to stand together in order to defeat the “Iran threat.”
Trump concluded his post online by saying the historic economic measures will cripple Iran. He said that Iran’s Navy is “gone,” its Air Force is “destroyed,” its military factories are “rubble” and its currency is “worthless.”
“Their country is hanging by a thread,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said online in response to Trump’s threat that it was a “diversion from America’s own crisis.” He posted figures from various news outlets that showed the “unprecedented debt and surging interest costs” in the United States.
“Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat–and enmity of Iranians,” Araghchi said. “U.S. economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide.”
If the war reignites, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would use “more precise, more destructive” weapons against the U.S., per Iranian state media.
Threat is a recent change in tune for Trump
The post on Wednesday evening is a change from the president’s recent remarks regarding Iran.
Earlier this week, he called Fox News Channel’s Trey Yingst, where he reiterated a previous message that he wasn’t in a hurry to end the war.
Trump told Yingst he has “no time schedule” to wind down the war.
This comes after the president pushed back on Iranian claims that no negotiations were happening. He said the U.S. was “semi-negotiating” and they were “low-keying it.”
He also issued a threat to Oman on the call with Yingst, saying if they get in the way, the U.S. will “bomb the (expletive) out of them.”
Negotiators in Iran and Oman have been looking to finalize details of a new deal that would set up shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump told Yingst that Iran should “put up the white flag of surrender.”
Trump’s apathy to ending the war was likely not something Republican leaders wanted to hear, particularly since his nationwide approval rating is underwater.
Voters have expressed concern about gas prices and the cost of living, which is likely something of concern for the president as he and his party seek to maintain majorities in both chambers of Congress in the upcoming November midterm elections.
Trump, however, told Yingst that the “midterms have nothing to do with my thinking.”
Still, Trump continues to face criticism over the war and delays to wrap it up, particularly after reports detailed poor living conditions on the USS Lincoln, which has been at sea since last November and was moved to the Middle East in January ahead of the war.
Trump has tried to downplay concerns about the living conditions for the approximately 5,000 officials onboard. At first he said the deployment hadn’t gone on “nearly long enough,” but later he and the acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao announced the USS George Washington was headed to the region to relieve the Lincoln from its deployment.
U.S. Central Command on Thursday announced the USS George Washington was transiting the Arabian Sea and was “operating” in the Middle East for a “scheduled deployment.”