US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Wednesday, threatening to abandon his conciliatory approach if Tehran refused to return to nuclear negotiations.
"Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!" Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. The post was accompanied by a large image of Trump holding a weapon against a backdrop of a desert explosion, with the words "No more Mr. Nice Guy" superimposed on the image.
The post was written at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time, prompting many users on the platform to wonder what he was doing awake at that hour. Trump frequently writes his posts himself, without assistance from aides.
Earlier that evening, Trump hosted British King Charles III and Queen Camilla at a state dinner at the White House, as part of the king's official visit to Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. During the event, Trump addressed the campaign against Iran, emphasizing that the US "militarily defeated that adversary," and added, "We will never allow that same adversary to possess nuclear weapons." He also said, "Charles agrees even more than I do."
Opening his remarks, Trump praised the king for his speech to Congress earlier that day, calling it "a fantastic speech."
"He got the Democrats to stand up. I never managed to do that," Trump said.
Weighing a unilateral victory declaration
Earlier, Reuters reported that the US intelligence community had been examining how Iran would respond if President Trump were to unilaterally declare victory in the war, citing two senior American officials and an additional source familiar with the details. According to the report, the assessment stems from the administration's desire to bring the war to a close due to its political costs, as Trump's approval rating has fallen to 34% in a Reuters poll.
According to Reuters, officials and advisers within the administration fear the war could lead to a severe Republican defeat in the midterm elections scheduled for November.
According to the report, the intelligence community had previously analyzed the expected response of Iranian leaders to an American declaration of victory. In the days following the opening strike in February, intelligence agencies assessed that if Trump declared victory and the US drew down its forces in the region, Iran would view it as a victory of its own, one of the sources said.
