WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he had decided to order a US strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned again would be greeted with stiff retaliation.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House amid growing speculation the US could be on the verge of joining the Israeli offensive. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump added that it was not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program as he continues to weigh direct US involvement in Israel’s military operations aimed at crushing Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump said Iran had even suggested sending officials to the White House for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in a bid to end Israel’s air assault, but added that it was “very late.”
“They’ve suggested that they come to the White House. That’s, you know, courageous, but it’s, like, not easy for them to do.”
“I said it’s very late to be talking. We may meet. There’s a big difference between now and a week ago, right? Big difference,” Trump added, reiterating that what he now wants is Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Israel on Friday launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem characterized as an imminent, existential threat. Iran has responded with deadly barrages of ballistic missiles at civilian population centers and military targets in Israel.
However, missile barrages have become smaller as the days have gone by, while Israel has established air superiority over Iran’s skies, acting freely to destroy its targets in numerous strikes every day.
The US says it has so far only taken indirect actions in the conflict, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel, but it’s begun to bolster its forces in the region, with Trump widely reported to be weighing taking a direct role in the strikes.
Trump lamented that Iran should have agreed to a nuclear deal before his 60-day deadline expired last week. The initial Israeli strikes were carried out the day after the deadline expired.
He described Iran as totally defenseless, with no air defense whatsoever, adding that he had since given Tehran the “ultimate ultimatum.”
“I’ve had it, okay? I’ve had it. I give up, no more, we go and blow up all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the place,” Trump said.
But he also said, “Nothing’s too late,” he said. “Nothing is finished until it is finished.” But “the next week is going to be very big — maybe less than a week.”
Asked about Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s refusal to heed his call for Iran to submit to a surrender, he offered a terse response: “I say good luck.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations refuted Trump’s claim that Tehran has sought to send negotiators to the White House.
“No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” it said in a statement on social media. “The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”
“Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance,” it added. “Iran shall respond to any threat with a counter-threat and to any action with reciprocal measures.”
Khamenei, in a tweet to his official X social media account, wrote, “The very fact that the Zionist regime’s American friends have entered the scene and are saying such things is a sign of that regime’s weakness and inability.”
Earlier, Khamenei, 86, rebuked Trump in a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday, warning that any US strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not bow to Trump’s call for surrender.
Iran, which vows to destroy Israel, has always denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, but its enrichment levels are far beyond any civilian purpose, and the IAEA says it has obstructed inspectors from visiting its nuclear sites.
Israel says it saw clear signs in recent months that Tehran was moving to weaponize its nuclear materials.
Trump had favored a diplomatic route to end Iran’s nuclear program, seeking a deal to replace the one he tore up in his first term in 2018. But since Israel launched strikes on Iran six days ago, Trump has moved in behind the key US ally as he considers whether to use US military power against Tehran too.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump Wednesday for “standing by our side.”
“We are in continuous communication, including last night—we had a very warm conversation,” Netanyahu said in a daily video statement.
The prime minister convened his security cabinet at 10 p.m. in Jerusalem, the offices of one minister told The Times of Israel.
Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government come after he urged Tehran’s 9.5 million residents on Monday to flee for their lives, as he cut short his participation in an international summit in Canada to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.
Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, the US moved Air Force refueling tankers and C17s to European bases in Prestwick, Scotland, and Aviano in Italy, according to Aurora Intel, a group that reviews open-source information in real time in the Middle East. It came as the US shifted military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East amid the Israel-Iran conflict.
On Tuesday, the US relocated a dozen F-16s from the Italian base to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, said the group.
Standing at the site of an Iranian missile strike in the central Israeli city of Herzliya, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Trump on Wednesday to join Israel’s military campaign against Iran.
“I trust President Trump to do the right thing for the United States. Still, both in talks with international officials and in the international media, I keep repeating that the United States needs to join this campaign,” he said, standing in front of a burned-out bus destroyed in a barrage the day before.
Meanwhile, US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he had asked the Trump administration to provide all 100 senators a classified briefing on the situation unfolding between Israel and Iran.
“We’ve gotten briefings and I have requested that we get an all-senators classified briefing,” Schumer said, adding that he believes it will be granted.
Amid the commotion over possible US involvement in the conflict, Americans expressed disapproval of how Trump is handling issues related to the warring countries, according to a June 13-16 poll by the Economist/YouGov.
Asked whether they “approve” or “disapprove” of Trump’s handling of Israel and Iran, 37% said they approved of his handling of both, while 44% disapproved of his handling of Israel and 41% disapproved of his handling of Iran. Trump’s net approval rating on Iran stands at –4, and on Israel, –7.
The US president said earlier this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to serve as a mediator between Israel and Iran. But on Wednesday, Trump said he’d told Putin to keep focused on finding an endgame to his own conflict with Ukraine.
“I said, ‘Do me a favor, mediate your own,'” Trump said. “I said, ‘Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later.'”
The Russia-Iran relationship has deepened since Putin launched a war on Ukraine in February 2022, with Tehran providing Moscow with drones, ballistic missiles, and other support, according to US intelligence findings.