President Trump declined to rule out a large-scale military escalation against Iran, telling reporters the United States remains prepared to strike while talks with Tehran continue.
Asked about his earlier comments to Axios that he was considering a “massive attack” on Iran, Trump was asked what would constitute a tipping point for that decision. “Well, I can’t tell you that,” Trump said, according to the official White House video of the exchange, which took place after an Oval Office event on American nuclear innovation. Asked how close the U.S. was to that point, Trump said, “Right now we’re talking to them. So, you know, maybe there won’t be a tipping point, and maybe there will. And we’re ready to go. Look, we’re locked and loaded. We’re ready to go. But we’re talking to them, so maybe there will be, maybe there won’t be a tipping point.”
Trump had told Axios two days earlier that he was “considering a massive attack, bigger than ever before,” and said he was “close to making a decision” and that “we are all set for it” He also said Iran had not “received enough pain yet.”
Asked when Iran might return to serious negotiations, Trump gave a mixed assessment of the campaign against Iranian leadership. “Maybe they will cry uncle, or maybe they’ll just give up, or maybe they’ll just go into a cave and hide,” Trump said. “They have caves very deep in the ground, and they can hide. They’d get shaken up pretty good, but they can hide. But we’ve taken out their first level of leadership. We’ve then taken out their second level of leadership. We’ve taken out some of the third level, and we’re negotiating with the rest. And we’ll see how it all works. Right now we are talking to them seriously, but I’ve talked to them before and they don’t seem to be able to get there. Maybe now they will.”
Trump also defended the war’s original justification. “If I thought they were anywhere near getting a nuclear weapon, if I wasn’t elected, Israel would, in my opinion, not be around anymore,” Trump said. “They would’ve been hit by a nuclear weapon.”
The comments came after Trump’s Oval Office announcement that four American nuclear energy startups had successfully demonstrated their reactor technologies as part of a Department of Energy pilot program, exceeding his goal of three next-generation reactors reaching criticality by the Fourth of July. “Today we’re celebrating an historic milestone for civilian nuclear energy and the renaissance of nuclear power in America,” Trump said at the event.
The U.S. military had carried out airstrikes against Iran for 13 consecutive days as of the day before Trump’s comments, with CENTCOM saying strikes have targeted Iran’s maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, air defense assets, aircraft hangars, military logistics infrastructure and command centers, according to the Hill’s reporting. Iran has retaliated with ballistic and cruise missiles and one-way attack drones against U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.
Republican defense hawks in Congress have urged Trump to move ahead with a larger offensive as negotiations have stalled and oil prices have climbed, even as public support for the war has continued to decline. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from June found just 24 percent of Americans believed the conflict had been worth its costs, while a separate Reuters survey found nearly 80 percent of respondents expected the U.S. military to remain engaged in the war “for an extended period of time.”
Trump has repeatedly set and shifted deadlines for major escalation since the war began Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched the initial strikes under the name Operation Epic Fury. In March, Trump gave Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning the U.S. would “hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, starting with the biggest one first,” before extending the deadline days later “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”
Trump made similar claims about Iran’s nuclear program in June 2025, after U.S. strikes hit Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, saying at the time that the U.S. had “completely obliterated” the sites. He has continued to describe Iran’s capabilities in sweeping terms throughout the current war even as the country has maintained the ability to strike U.S. bases and allied shipping.
The war has killed 18 U.S. service members and injured more than 500 as of the most recent Pentagon figures, with nearly 100 troops wounded since July 7 alone, according to Pentagon disclosures cited in reporting on the conflict’s toll.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided additional detail on what would constitute the “tipping point” Trump referenced or a timeline for any expanded military action.