President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that countries helping Iran keep cash, commerce or travel channels open could be hit next as Washington widens its campaign to cut off Tehran.
The threat on Truth Social went beyond Iran itself and put banks, airports, companies and foreign governments on notice that doing business with the regime could bring punishment from the United States.
“I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” Trump wrote.
Trump described the new move as the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY” and called it “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”
The pressure is also tied to the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, where the administration has been trying to squeeze Tehran while talks remain unresolved.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” last week that Trump had ordered the department to “apply maximum pressure to the Iranian regime.”
Bessent said the effort would pair money pressure with the blockade.
“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,” he said.
Trump’s Wednesday post named the kinds of workarounds he wanted stopped, including oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies.
“You know who you are,” Trump wrote. “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.”
The president also said Iran’s navy and air force “are destroyed,” its production facilities had been reduced to “rubble,” its currency was “worthless” and the country was “hanging by a thread.”
“These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide,” Trump wrote.
The same fight has left Trump threatening action far beyond sanctions.
On Monday, he told Fox News’s Trey Yingst that Oman could be bombed if it blocks efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters that Iran and Oman had reached “an understanding” regarding the “map of the transit route” in the strait.
Trump also told Yingst he was “not in a hurry” to reach a permanent agreement with Iran after the 60-day memorandum of understanding between the two sides expired Monday.
The U.S. and Iran have repeatedly broken that temporary arrangement by trading strikes since early July.
Talks with Tehran could resume “maybe at some point,” Trump said, while adding that the Strait of Hormuz is “not going to be quite as important as it was in the past” because several states are looking for other oil sources.
“I have no time schedule,” Trump said.
The president said his administration also has a back channel to officials in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Baghaei had already accused Washington of reaching for sanctions whenever diplomacy fails, calling that pattern an “addiction,” according to Yemen’s state-run news agency.
Iranian leaders warned neighboring Gulf states Wednesday against helping the U.S. military.
The United Arab Emirates also cut all financial and economic ties with Iran on Wednesday after citing missile fire from Tehran. Iran has attacked neighbors in the months since the war began.
Trump has also been pressing a claim that the Strait of Hormuz should belong to the United States.
After saying last week that he would declare the strait a U.S. territory “pretty soon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that the blockade already gave Washington control.
“We control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump said.
He said Iran could threaten ships by placing mines in the waterway.
“They can be a nuisance,” Trump said. “They can put a mine in the water, and people don’t like having mines hit their billion-dollar ships.”
Trump also said the U.S. was taking out “millions of barrels of oil a week” through the Strait of Hormuz and argued that prices were falling.
“The oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far drastic, more drastic than what we’re doing,” Trump said.
Early Tuesday, Trump posted a Truth Social map that marked the Strait of Hormuz as a “new U.S. territory.”
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi rejected the claim in a post on X translated from Persian to English.
“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Gharibabadi wrote. “This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command.”
Gharibabadi said Iran would keep enforcing its blockade while the U.S. does “not accept the reality of defeat” and indulges in its “delusions.”
Rep. Don Bacon said Trump had found a blockade strategy, but warned that too many public statements were muddying the administration’s message.
The Nebraska Republican told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” that action against Iran had become necessary, then urged the president and his allies to talk less.
“Some action had to be taken, if not with this president, maybe previous presidents, but something –– this could not be allowed to continue like this,” Bacon said.
“I think the president is on to a strategy of blockade. I also recommend: say less. There should be fewer people talking on this because there’s contradictory messages going out there.”
Bacon added the line he wanted the administration to follow. “Speak softly, but carry a big stick,” he said.
