Trump Weighs Wider Iranian Attacks With New Truce Still Elusive

Courtney Subramanian and Eltaf Najafizada

Fri, July 24, 2026 at 12:23 AM CDT 4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he's considering a "massive attack" on Iran to push the nation to negotiate a peace deal, raising the prospect of even higher energy prices that have already rattled economies.

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Trump told Axios in an interview that he was "close to making a decision" on attacks that would be "bigger than ever before." Iran isn't ready to make a deal and "they haven't received enough pain yet," Trump was reported as saying.

The president's remarks underscore the bind he finds himself in after renewed fighting caused an interim peace deal to collapse and all but closed the Strait of Hormuz. In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump threatened "major military punishment" on Iran and the Houthi militant group it backs in Yemen if they target commercial ships. The Houthis claimed strikes on Saudi oil tankers this week, opening a new front in a conflict that has driven oil prices above $100 a barrel and US retail gasoline prices over $4 a gallon.

Mediation efforts faltered after Iran on Thursday rejected a ceasefire proposal from Trump carried to Tehran by Iraq's prime minister, the New York Times reported, citing Iranian and Iraqi officials. Details of the plan were not clear, the newspaper said.

US Central Command said Thursday it launched a 13th consecutive night of strikes intended to degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in Hormuz.

The strikes came hours after the US president warned "that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls."

The US has about $2 billion of blocked Iranian funds inside its borders. A much larger portion is in other countries and is prevented from being transferred by US sanctions — estimates vary from $24 billion to more than $100 billion. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that "seizing another nation's assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent."

The war that began when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February has entered a new phase of escalation after last month's truce collapsed. The fighting remains less intense than at its peak, but Iran has threatened to target regional infrastructure, including energy sites, if Trump carries out his threat to destroy one bridge or power plant each time Tehran attacks shipping in Hormuz. Traffic through the strait, which before the war carried about one-fifth of global energy supplies, has slowed to a trickle.