AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.President Trump’s “Economic D-Day” is intended to break the stalemate with Iran. But decades of sanctions have done little to change the country’s behavior.Listen · 8:11 min President Trump has bombarded Iran with new sanctions during his second term, targeting virtually the country’s entire economy.Credit...Alex Kent/The New York TimesAug. 25, 2026, 3:14 p.m. ETSoon after taking office last year, President Trump issued a directive laying out his “maximum economic pressure” policy against Iran.Yet Mr. Trump seems to have decided that even maximum pressure can be turned up to 11.He calls his new plan “Economic D-Day,” and it is meant to break the stalemate in the U.S. conflict with Iran.On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new sanctions against 60 Iranian and Iran-linked entities, individuals and vessels, and demanded the closing of all branches of a major Iranian bank that operates in many countries.But his demands that other nations stop doing business with Iran underscore the difficulty in trying to impose sanctions on Iran’s economy to the point of collapse.Thoroughly enforcing sanctions is notoriously hard, and in Iran’s case would require messy run-ins with allies and powerful rivals capable of retaliation, most notably China. Imposing a full ban on global trade with Iran, as Mr. Bessent called for, only multiplies those challenges. Mr. Bessent himself admitted doing so could roil the global economy.Those factors help explain why U.S. officials are still struggling to strangle Iran’s economy despite the mountain of sanctions Washington has heaped on the country over the past five decades.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT