President Donald Trump says the United States has several options remaining in its confrontation with Iran as he considers what direction to take after months of warfare, negotiations and a fragile cease-fire.
One approach, according to Trump, would require neither an immediate military escalation nor a new agreement with Tehran, because he believes pressure already being applied by Washington could eventually produce the result he wants.
Trump said Tuesday that the United States could continue an “easy, relaxed” strategy of applying economic pressure against Iran, declaring during an interview with Wayne Allyn Root of Real America’s Voice, “I’m their banker.”
Trump said his administration is considering three broad strategies as it determines how to proceed with Iran following the breakdown of a memorandum of understanding signed in June.
“We could just keep it alone, and they’re going to fail,” Trump said.
“We could just keep, you know, doing sort of just like nice and easy, relaxed,” the president continued.
Trump expressed frustration with Iranian officials during the interview, accusing Tehran’s representatives of changing their public descriptions of agreements after negotiations.
“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump said.
“You see, they’re very devious negotiators because they’ll agree to something, then they’ll go out and tell the press that they never agreed to it,” he continued.
“They’re very dishonest people,” Trump added.
The president then outlined what he described as the three potential strategies available to his administration.
“We have three strategies,” Trump declared.
The first, he said, would essentially maintain the current approach while allowing Iran’s economic problems to intensify.
“Do what I’m doing now, just bop along and look how bad they’re doing because their nation’s, they’ve got 300% inflation,” Trump said.
“They have no value. Their currency has almost no value. They’re not paying their soldiers. Their soldiers are leaving,” he continued.
“So just keep that going because that’s not sustainable,” Trump said.
Trump described the second possibility in significantly more direct military terms.
Another option, he said, would be to “hit them really, really hard.”
The president said his third option would focus specifically on defeating Iran through economic pressure, although he acknowledged that strategy overlaps significantly with his administration’s current approach.
“Or really the third is just beat them economically, but we’re doing that anyway,” Trump said.
“That’s sort of a part of the first one,” he continued.
Trump argued that American control over Iran’s access to money gives Washington substantial leverage over Tehran.
“So economically, they are a mess. They can’t borrow money,” Trump said.
“We control their money, what they had, which is a lot. They had a lot, and we have total control of it,” he added.
Trump then summarized his view of the relationship in unusually personal terms.
“I’m their banker,” Trump said. “I am their banker.”
The Treasury Department said Monday that Iran’s currency has lost approximately 20% of its value during the war and that the administration’s reimposed naval blockade has dramatically reduced Iranian oil exports.
According to Treasury, Iran had been loading approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil per day for export before the war, compared with roughly 500,000 barrels per day under the current restrictions.
The conflict began Feb. 28, although a cease-fire has been in place since April 8 as the administration has pursued negotiations.
Trump signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17, but that arrangement began unraveling last month after Iran attacked commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Asked whether the conflict could affect November’s midterm elections, Trump said his overriding concern was preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I’m in this thing for one primary reason: that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
“So now they can’t,” he added, The New York Post reported.
Iranian leaders, meanwhile, have continued publicly rejecting American pressure, with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei writing Monday that “Iran is in a strategic, fateful confrontation with Global Arrogance.”
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