Trump Turns Back to Sanctions to Try to End His Iran War

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is betting that a financial squeeze can end the war with Iran that he launched on Feb. 28, after arguing for years that decades of sanctions had failed to stop Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The administration hopes months of bombing have pushed Iran's economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership to give up its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers. On Monday, Trump said that because Iran is seeking compensation in any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for the United States.

"Yeah, they can make trouble, but they're broke," Trump told reporters. "They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And, they're not paying their soldiers. They have inflation of 300%."

Inflation is high in Iran, but Trump's figure exceeded what administration officials have cited to reporters. The Iranian government recently reported an annual inflation rate of 88.6%, and the International Monetary Fund estimates the economy is shrinking by 5.4%. The Treasury Department said average loadings of Iranian oil have fallen from 1.8 million barrels a day before the war to under 500,000 over the past month.

The pivot comes as U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have dwindled and negotiations appear stalled again. Crude prices rose Monday as investors read Trump's comments as a sign fewer ships would transit the strait, a waterway that carried roughly 20% of global oil supplies before the war and has become a source of Iranian leverage.

Since April 16, the administration has run what it calls "Operation Economic Fury," which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called the "financial equivalent" of a bombing campaign, with penalties available against countries that buy Iranian oil or bank with Iran.

Richard Nephew, a Columbia University scholar who helped direct Iran sanctions policy in the Obama administration, said sanctions cannot bite as fast as the shuttered strait and that Trump has not set clear war aims. "Economic pressure is a possible element in his strategy, but he's yet to explain the purpose," he said.

Juan Zarate, a deputy national security adviser under George W. Bush, said sanctions and the naval blockade of Iranian ports do give Washington leverage, but that such measures take time.

Iran was dismissive. "Whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions," Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei wrote on social media.