The US military campaign against Iran has so far failed to force the regime to capitulate. The Trump administration is betting once again that suffocating economic pressure will do the job.
Facing a shortfall of necessary munitions and wary of continuing an unpopular war, Trump and his top officials are returning to a familiar playbook: relying on a steady increase in economic sanctions and a naval blockade to stifle Iran’s oil exports.
The renewed emphasis on economic pain — it was dubbed “Maximum Pressure” in Trump’s first term — is a marked pivot for an administration that has repeatedly threatened a stepped up military campaign after nearly six months of war against Tehran.
While the approach failed to bring about the result President Donald Trump wanted before 2020, he and his team argue it will this time around.
“Operation Economic Fury, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, is devastating the Iranian economy,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News on Aug. 10. He said the country would “absorb the bombings” but that Iranians were more afraid of Bessent than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
