U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday an “economic D-Day” to financially strangle Iran,
The Iranian “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,” he wrote on Truth Social.
No one has given the Iranian regime a better chance to make a deal than he, Trump wrote.
“Tragically, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” he continued.
The president further threatened “tremendous economic consequences” for any country that lets its “financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran.”
“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies—it all needs to stop now,” he stated. “You know who you are. This will be an economic D-Day.”
He called on all U.S. allies to “isolate and defeat the Iran threat.”
“These maniacs are on the ropes,” he said. “These historic measures will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 19, 2026
On Tuesday, Trump said Washington was not currently negotiating with Tehran and that no talks are scheduled.
“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that “the naval blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated.”
Tehran rejected those assertions, maintaining that the waterway remains under Iranian authority and will stay shut until Washington yields to its terms.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, said in Tehran on Tuesday that the strategic maritime passage would not reopen until the United States satisfies the Islamic Republic’s demands, including the removal of the naval blockade on its southern ports.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters that the 60-day negotiating period with the U.S. had “completely lost its relevance,” according to a translation by the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Baghaei said the June 17 memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran provided “merely a 60-day window for talks on two axes, sanctions relief and the nuclear issue, which could be extended if no result was reached.” He claimed the substantive negotiations envisioned under the agreement never began.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday, Iran spent the two months since signing the memorandum preparing for a wider conflict. Tehran strengthened the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ control over the country’s conventional armed forces, increased missile and drone production and coordinated plans for expanded attacks by Iranian-backed terrorist groups across the region, according to the report.
