Trump sounds alarm on ‘crazy’ Iran, says regime would use nuclear weapon ‘without question’

Oil prices rose more than 2% on Thursday to settle at their highest levels in nearly a month amid escalating tensions across the Gulf, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures settled up $2.16, or 2.4%, at $93.78 a barrel, their highest close since July 24. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for September gained $2, or 2.3%, to settle at $87.83 a barrel, also their highest since July 24.

Oil trading firm Ritterbusch and Associates said new threats from Washington appear “unlikely to sway Iran into relinquishing their primary source of leverage, that being control of the Strait, absent major concessions from the U.S.”

“So, the beat goes on with no resolution in sight that would spur a major decline in oil prices back to levels anywhere close to those prior to the war,” Ritterbusch and Associates told Reuters.

Washington must cut off the financial lifelines Tehran uses to maintain its grip on power and confront Iran’s “gray zone” network, former U.S. CENTCOM commander retired Gen. Joseph Votel said Thursday after President Donald Trump announced “draconian sanctions” on Iran.

“We have to demonstrate the ability to virtually go after every dollar that is supporting the regime,” Votel said on “The Story.”

“This means we have to be prepared to go after banks and businesses and governments that are providing the support,” he warned before adding that Washington needs to address the oil smuggling, the currency swaps, the cash transfers, the ship registries and “all the other gray zone activities that are taking place that are keeping this government in Iran in place.”

“It requires really strong collaboration across the U.S. government. It requires good communication and planning with our partners, not only in the region but internationally,” he said.

“We’re going to have to exercise some patience with this. It’s going to take some time, so you have to have some political patience in this,” he added.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran had been pursuing its nuclear ambitions for more than half a century and claimed Tehran was just weeks from having a new nuclear weapon when he ordered U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities in 2025.

“This was going on for 50 — actually 51 years now,” Trump told Michael Cohen on his 77 WABC radio show.

“And it should have been taken care of by other presidents or other countries. And it wasn't.

“Iran became the bully of the Middle East. They were bullying everybody around.

“They were the boss and bad things were happening, and they would have absolutely taken out Israel and they would have absolutely taken out the Middle East.

“I guess they would have shot at us, too. But had they had nuclear weapons, if they had that capacity, it would have been different.

“Now, when we hit them with the B-2 bombers, they were exactly two weeks away from having a new nuclear weapon.

“And that's why I had to do it, because you cannot let them have that kind of a weapon,” he added. The U.S. military struck Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities in June 2025 in an operation involving B-2 stealth bombers and bunker-busting bombs.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the destruction of Iran’s military capabilities and the loss of much of its leadership have made it harder to strike a deal with Tehran, even as he declared the U.S. was “doing very well” in its confrontation with the country.

“We're doing very well with Iran,” Trump told Michael Cohen during an interview on his 77 WABC radio program.

“The Navy's gone, the Air Force is gone, the leadership is gone,” Trump said. “Part of the problem is so many of the leaders are gone. It's not easy to make a deal. Nobody knows who's leading.”

Trump said the central objective of the U.S. campaign was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“I think the public sees what we're doing because Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “We have to make a journey to the Middle East because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

“They're crazy,” Trump continued. “If you had a country like that, they would absolutely use the nuclear weapon without question.”

Trump also pointed to the use of B-2 bombers, saying: “I stopped that, and I stopped it cold with the B-2 bombers.”

“They would have wiped out Israel. They would have wiped out the Middle East,” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet face to face with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris on Aug. 23 and 24, where the two leaders are expected to discuss rising tensions in the Middle East, Macron’s office said Thursday.

The talks will focus on key regional issues and efforts to promote stability and peace in the Middle East, as France continues to work closely with its partners in the Persian Gulf, the president’s office said.

The United States and its allies should intensify economic pressure on Iran and target countries helping it stay afloat, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday, singling out China as one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil.

Esper also argued that tightening the economic squeeze on Tehran is the best option.

“It is something that will take us time and patience and discipline to effect,” Esper said on “America Reports,”adding that there was a good chance the strategy “could pay off.”

“We will have to sacrifice a little bit. The Iranian people will sacrifice a little bit, but it's a far better option than committing ground troops, and it's a far better option than retreating from the Strait and leaving it to Iran.”

“The president putting out the word to other nations is important,” Esper said, referring to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post Wednesday.

“This will be economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale,” Trump wrote. “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.”

Esper said China would be a key focus of that effort because of its economic ties to Tehran.

“As you know, China is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian oil and other goods,” Esper said.

“But other than that, it's mostly the countries neighboring, bordering Iran that we have to focus on as well in order to really clamp down on Iran and tie up their economy.”

Vice President JD Vance confirmed a new phase in the war with Iran on Thursday, describing what he called a “new reality” on the ground as the Trump administration turned to economic pressure.

“We're in a new phase of this,” Vance said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.”

“We have destroyed their conventional military. We have put an incredible amount of pressure on their industrial base that they use to manufacture weapons,” he said.

“We're kind of now in a new phase where the most effective tool that we have is the economic pressure that we can apply to them, and and this is a delicate dance because we apply economic pressure to them, they're going to try to apply economic pressure to us.”

“We're going to keep that going because we think that's the best way to to ultimately accomplish the final objective here.”

“The president said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

“Well, their nuclear facilities are destroyed, but the question is, do they try to rebuild them?”

“What we're trying to do is create a changed reality on the ground, where not just we can say with confidence their facilities have been destroyed, but we can also say with confidence they're never going to try to rebuild, and that's the phase that we're in now.”

Vance’s comments came as President Donald Trump intensified the economic campaign against Tehran, warning of consequences for countries that provide “any type of lifeline to Iran” as Washington seeks to further isolate the regime.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited Iraq Aug. 19, a trip analysts say reflects Tehran’s effort to “reshuffle relations with Iraq” amid mounting regional and economic pressure.

Ghalibaf arrived for a three-day visit as Baghdad confronts an economic crisis fueled by the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Dr. Yaron Schneider, an INSS researcher, told The Jerusalem Post that Iran is trying to “mend or fix what has already been out of order over the last month, so they don’t lose Iraq.”

Schneider said Iraq’s heavy dependence on oil exports has left the country particularly vulnerable, with monthly oil revenues falling from roughly 7 billion-8 billion to 1.2 billion-1.9 billion.

“This is a crisis that is still ongoing and might undermine the state if it continues. They don’t have any short-term solution for this crisis.”

“Iran is trying to do its best, first of all, to quiet the voices criticizing it for the devastating consequences of the Hormuz crisis,” Schneider said.

During the trip, Ghalibaf also called on the two countries to strengthen a “new regional order” and denounced “foreign interference,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Treasury Department on Thursday imposed new sanctions targeting a Hezbollah cash-smuggling network that U.S. officials said moved hundreds of millions of dollars across the Middle East.

The action comes as Washington intensifies efforts to disrupt Hezbollah’s access to foreign currency and financial support from Iran.

The Treasury said the network used couriers traveling on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran to move cash, allowing Hezbollah to evade U.S. sanctions. The sanctions targeted 10 individuals.

The network was previously associated with Behnam Shahriyari, a now-deceased finance official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, or IRGC-QF, according to the department.

“OFAC is also re-designating Hizballah for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF),” the Treasury statement said.

Officials said Hezbollah and its allies have relied on oil smuggling, illicit shipping, commodity sales and bulk cash transfers to generate and move funds across the region.

The USS Abraham Lincoln and its crew have begun the voyage home after one of the Navy’s most demanding deployments in recent years, leaving the Arabian Sea for San Diego after 272 days at sea, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.

The roughly 13,000-mile journey back to the United States could take more than a month, one official said.

Lincoln's departure comes as the USS George Washington arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday to replace the carrier. The George Washington was pulled from the eastern Pacific, leaving that region without a U.S. aircraft carrier.

The USS George H.W. Bush also stays in the Arabian Sea, an official confirmed.

The shift comes as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports enters its 38th day. Roughly 20 U.S. ships remain in the Middle East — approximately the same naval presence the Pentagon has maintained since the start of Operation Epic Fury in February.

The force includes a Marine Expeditionary Unit and several U.S. Navy destroyers.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke with the Lincoln’s crew last week, while U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper visited the carrier over the weekend.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said.

Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this report.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan early Thursday, accusing him of dragging Turkey into "dangerous adventures in Syria" and warning the Turkish leader not to test Israel’s resolve.

"Israel will not allow any actor to threaten its security," Katz wrote on X. "It would be better for Erdoğan to continue his detached-from-reality, fanciful rhetoric against Israel in the Turkish Grand National Assembly than to attempt to test Israel's determination to defend itself."

The warning comes two days after Israel struck Syria’s Abu al-Duhur Airbase. The increasingly heated rhetoric has put Washington in the position of trying to contain tensions between Turkey, a NATO member, and Israel, Washington’s closest security partners in the Middle East.

Israel said Syria was on the verge of breaching a security understanding by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there, while Ankara rejected Israel’s account.

Syria said there were no plans for a permanent Turkish base or troop deployment, although Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani acknowledged that Turkish military officers had visited the facility for training and exchanges of expertise.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said no Turkish military delegation was present at the base before or during the strike, Reuters reported.

On Wednesday, Turkey called these allegations from Israel "untenable," arguing that they are "intended to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The imputations voiced stem from Netanyahu’s intent to pursue expansionist and destabilizing policies in the region ahead of the elections in Israel," Turkey's government said in a social media post.

This is an excerpt from a report by Fox News Digital's Efrat Lachter.

The Yemeni Armed Forces announced Thursday that it had carried out 81 "high-quality" military operations against the the Houthis over the last 24 hours, killing several leaders of within the Iran-backed terror group.

The operations also led to the destruction of equipment and vehicles, the Yemeni military said in a statement shared on X.

"The operations are a response to the repeated Houthi attacks on civilian facilities and the siege on the Yemeni people (targeting the Duba port and halting oil exports, destroying Sana'a Airport and Yemeni aircraft, and destroying the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Issa)," according to the Yemeni military.

The military also blamed the Houthis for targeting food ships and displacement camps, accusing them of starving Yemenis.

"The Armed Forces are committed to defending Yemen's sovereignty and the dignity of its citizens, rejecting any external agendas, and affirm their resolve to restore state institutions and end the suffering of the people," the military statement concluded.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday posted an image of multiple Marine Corps Osprey aircraft taking off from the USS Boxer in the Arabian Sea.

The Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, has been in the Arabian Sea since at least early July as part of its deployment to the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet region, according to U.S. Naval Institute News.

The Boxer counts itself among the many ships enforcing the blockade of Iran's ports.

As of Aug. 20, U.S. forces had redirected 67 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two while enforcing the blockade, according to CENTCOM.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that the Trump administration's new maximum economic pressure campaign intended to isolate Iran from the rest of the world could prevent the resumption of large-scale fighting in the war — at least for now.

"If we are doing this maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart. But I would emphasize that is for now," Bessent said in an on-air interview with CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

Bessent expanded on the tactical pivot against Iran, first announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump, who described it as "an economic D-Day."

"The economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world," Bessent said. "We are going to them and saying you are either with us or against us."

"If you insist on doing business with them, either transferring money, buying their oil, or doing seaborne ship transfers, then the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. government will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you," Bessent added.

Bessent said a coordinated global economic crackdown on Iran would curb the regime’s ability to fund its proxies, pay its troops and beat back inflation.

"It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history. And I will tell you, this will work. It worked in Venezuela once we put up the blockade. It is working in Cuba right now, and it is going to work in Iran, and we are going to collapse this regime," Bessent concluded.

The USS George Washington arrived in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday and is on its way to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed to the Middle East for the last six months.

The George Washington is one of the U.S. Navy's 11 aircraft carriers and will be a crucial asset in maintaining the U.S military's ongoing blockade of Iran's ports.

The redeployment of the George Washington and its strike group from the Indo-Pacific to U.S. Central Command’s theater underscores the strain on the Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet, temporarily leaving the western Pacific without a U.S. carrier as the Navy works to relieve the long-deployed Abraham Lincoln.

The USS Carl Vinson departed its home port in San Diego this week and could potentially fill the gap left by the George Washington, though Navy officials have not disclosed where it is going, citing operational security.

The last time there was a gap in U.S. aircraft carrier deployments was under the Biden administration in 2024.

Such gaps come about because only about half of the Navy's aircraft carriers are typically available for operations at any given time since they must undergo lengthy maintenance periods after deployments.

Those maintenance cycles can last months or even more than a year. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, for example, entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia in January 2025 after a nine-month deployment. It did not return to sea for 15 months, according to the U.S. military.

Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this post.

Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen said they attacked an airport and an Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement on Telegram that the Yemeni Armed Forces "successfully carried out two drone operations" targeting "a sensitive Saudi enemy target at Najran Airport" and Aramco Najran, according to an online translation.

Saree said both operations "achieved their objectives successfully" and "came in response to the Saudi enemy's violation of Saada Governorate's airspace with its drones."

"The Armed Forces will continue to protect Yemen's sovereignty from any incursion and maintain this balance," he added.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the attacks.

Tajikistan's transport ministry said in a statement this week that it is asking to import 2,550,000 tons of oil and fuel from Iran, citing Russian supply shortages.

The ministry's statement issued Tuesday said the total request amount includes 2 million tons of crude oil, 150,000 tons of gasoline, 300,000 tons of diesel fuel and 100,000 tons of aviation kerosene — the equivalent to 51,000 rail tank cars.

Tajikistan, which shares borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and China, among other Central Asian nations, has historically gotten 80% of its petroleum products from Russia, according to the ministry. Supply chain issues persist more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ministry noted that fuel imports are therefore planned from other countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reuters noted that Tajikistan is a Persian-speaking country that has close cultural and linguistic ties ‌to ⁠Iran. Tajikistan's energy minister said last month that authorities were negotiating ​with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq and ​Belarus ⁠about petroleum product supplies.

Tajikistan's transport minister met in Tehran on Aug. 15 with an Iranian official to discuss the transportation and logistics of sending petroleum products and crude oil from Iran to Tajikistan, according to the ministry's statement. No timeframe was given for when the fuel might be shipped.

Reuters contributed to this post.

Iranian officials have responded with ridicule to President Donald Trump's threat to wage economic war on their country.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said the apparent pivot in U.S. strategy will fail.

"The military war didn’t yield results, so now they’ve named the next failure 'economic war,'" Gharibabadi said in an overnight post on X. "They claim Iran is on the brink of collapse and hanging by a thread, yet they beg all their allies to help them!"

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media that Trump's "Economic D-Day" is a "a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs."

Araghchi was referring to the news this week that the U.S. national debt surpassed $40 trillion. The federal government's debt burden crossed the $39 trillion threshold about five months ago in March.

"Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians. US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide," Araghchi added.

The Trump administration has not publicly responded to the Iranian officials’ remarks as of Thursday morning. Trump has repeatedly argued that Iran is already badly weakened militarily and that the new economic campaign will "cripple them."

U.S. Central Command shared a photo Thursday of sailors working on the flight deck of the USS George Washington, the aircraft carrier that is set to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed to the Middle East for the past six months in support of the Iran war, but it has been at sea even longer — more than 250 consecutive days since departing Naval Base San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025.

The George Washington Carrier Strike Group arrived Wednesday in the CENTCOM theater, which covers 21 nations in the Middle East along with Central and South Asia.

Last week, CENTCOM issued a strong denial of media reports claiming sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln have attempted suicide.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth also said last week that allegations of poor living conditions aboard the ship have been “completely misrepresented,” following reports of supply shortages, plumbing issues and crew members threatening to jump off the ship.

A tanker traveling off the coast of Yemen was hijacked by six armed individuals, who intend to reroute the vessel to Somalia, according to the ⁠United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Center.

The ship was moving west through the Gulf of Aden on Thursday when they were approached by an "unauthorized vessel," the UKMTO said.

Authorities are investigating the incident, according to the UKMTO.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” threatening sweeping consequences for nations and businesses that provide Iran with an economic lifeline as he seeks to further isolate Tehran.

“No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me,” Trump said in a post shared on X.

“TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. 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 said, claiming Iran’s navy is gone, its air force destroyed, its military factories reduced to rubble, its currency worthless and the country “hanging by a thread.”

Trump also warned that “ANY country” allowing its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide “any type of lifeline to Iran” would face “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”

“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — it all needs to stop NOW,” he said.

“You know who you are,” Trump added, calling the campaign an “ECONOMIC D-DAY” and urging U.S. allies to help “isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”

Trump said Iran’s leaders are “on the ropes” and that the measures would “cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide.”

“IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” he said.