President Donald Trump in New Jersey, on July 19, 2026. David Ramos/Getty Images
The United States will launch all-out “economic warfare” against Iran, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
“No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!
“This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” Trump wrote.
He announced that foreign countries that allow their financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities “to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”
Trump gave several examples of conduct that the United States would penalize, including “oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, [and] front companies.”
The president didn’t name any offenders, but said that such nations “know who you are.”
“This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide,” Trump said.
He repeated past claims that the critical capacities of the U.S. adversary had been entirely diminished.
“Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless, and their country is hanging by a thread,” Trump wrote.
The president vowed that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon. He has said that the extensive U.S. military operations in the region over the past several months were mainly to end the terrorism-backing regime’s nuclear program.
The new approach to the Iran War comes as diplomacy has continually fallen through amid allegations of treaty violations on both sides.
The move to apply fresh economic pressure to Iran has been openly discussed by the administration for some time, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” on Thursday that Trump had ordered the U.S. Treasury to “apply maximum pressure to the Iranian regime.”
“It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports,” Bessent said.
This shift follows the United Arab Emirates announcing it would cut off trade with Iran after Tehran’s forces fired two missiles at the country.
