Trump Says He's in 'Deciding Mode' on Iran, Floats Blowing Up the 'Entire Nation' Days Before Possible Pezeshkian Meeting

Nearly seven months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump says he's reached a decision point. In a Fox News interview airing Sunday, Trump told correspondent Trey Yingst his options are stark: "wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal."

"My question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave," Trump said, according to Fox News reporting cited by The Hill, Anadolu Agency and Arab News. He added that "very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future."

That rhetoric builds on a Thursday, Sept. 17 interview with Axios's Barak Ravid, where Trump described a "big decision" ahead on whether to "go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not," according to the Epoch Times. The escalation in specificity, from a general threat of annihilation to naming the entire country, comes two days before the UN General Assembly's high-level week begins its general debate Sept. 22-28 in New York.

A Possible Meeting With Pezeshkian

Despite the fire-and-brimstone framing, Trump signaled openness to diplomacy. Asked about Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is attending UNGA this week, Trump said he'd "probably be open" to meeting him, according to Arab News and Anadolu Agency. Neither Pezeshkian nor Tehran had responded to that offer as of Sunday.

Trump has used this mixed signal approach since April, when he warned "a whole civilization will die" unless something "revolutionarily wonderful" happened. That threat produced a brief ceasefire, according to The Hill.

Iran Sends Its Own Conditions

The most concrete new development came from Tehran. Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Sunday that Iran has conveyed conditions through mediators for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which it has attempted to blockade throughout the war, according to AFP reporting carried by Arab News. Ghalibaf did not detail what those conditions are, and the U.S. has not publicly responded.

Separately, U.S. military officials said Saturday that oil, gas and cargo shipments moving out of the Gulf through the strait reached their highest levels in six months over the prior two weeks, per Arab News. That's a regional shipping figure, not necessarily Iranian oil specifically, and it sits alongside U.S. Central Command's claim that its own blockade has stopped Iranian crude entirely. CENTCOM said Thursday that 104 ships have been redirected to comply with U.S. military action, and Trump told Axios, "Not one ship has gone to Iran since we started. They tried, and we blew them up."

Trump Accuses Democrats of Wanting the U.S. to Lose

In a separate Fox News interview with Trey Gowdy, Trump claimed Democrats "want our country to lose the war with Iran" and cited the party's muted reaction to the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, where he said a helicopter pilot received the Congressional Medal of Honor after a 48-minute mission, according to Breitbart's transcript. Trump said Democrats initially sat "stone-faced" during the medal ceremony before applauding later in the evening.

No Democratic lawmaker was quoted disputing or confirming that characterization in the available reporting, and the claim that Democrats actively want a U.S. military loss is Trump's own assertion, not something documented by a named Democratic official's statement.

Reading Trump's Pressure Campaign

The administration's own actions cut against a literal reading of "blow the entire nation up." The U.S. military has paused major strikes on Iran since early September while maintaining the naval blockade, according to the Epoch Times. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has framed the strategy as economic strangulation rather than annihilation, telling Fox News Iran is in a "death spiral" and is "panicked" because "they are getting squeezed economically." The Treasury Department's Operation Economic Outcast sanctioned BitBank, a digital-assets venture tied to Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, on Thursday as part of that campaign. Trump has also said the war would "end after the midterms" in November, a timeline that points toward negotiation rather than an imminent ground invasion.

The Domestic Cost

None of this is free for Republicans facing voters. AAA put the national gas price average at $4.48 a gallon Sunday, driven largely by Iran's disruption of Hormuz shipping over roughly seven months. Trump has waved off the cost: "It's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done," he told a Gastonia, N.C. rally for Senate candidate Michael Whatley Wednesday, predicting prices will fall "like rocket ships in reverse."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) isn't convinced. "He said we were going to be in and out in a matter of weeks," she said last week, describing constituent frustration. "Not only are we still there but this is what I am feeling in my community when it comes to the cost of the war. I'm not satisfied with where we are. Not at all."

The State Department issued a fresh travel warning Sunday citing escalating regional friction and cautioning that Iran and allied groups may target U.S. interests, businesses and citizens worldwide.

Whether Trump and Pezeshkian actually meet during UNGA week, and what conditions Ghalibaf's mediators actually delivered on Hormuz, remain open questions heading into a week where both leaders will be in the same city for the first time since the war began.