Foreign Policy

Trump Backs Down From Yet Another Empty Threat to Iran

We’re locked in a cycle: The president threatens to resume the war, he claims Iran backed down, and then he gets frustrated with Iran again.

Matthew Petti | 8.3.2026 11:47 AM

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(Illustration: Brian T. Young/Dreamstime/Aaron Schwartz - via CNP/Polaris/Newscom)

It was a whirlwind weekend for people across the Middle East. A burst of stories came out on Friday suggesting that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were thinking of resuming full-scale war with Iran, including Trump's long-threatened attacks on power plants and bridges. U.S. embassies warned Americans against travel in the Middle East. People on both sides of the Persian Gulf told me about the preparations for war: families stocking up on supplies, authorities throttling the internet, service members called up for duty.

On Saturday night, Trump suddenly reversed course. Despite being "locked and loaded" to unleash "Military Terror," he wrote on Truth Social, the U.S. was going to "cancel the attack" because "the perimeters [sic] of a deal has been agreed to. This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran's nuclear threat."

The cycle has become a running joke among commodities traders. Multiple times during the war and postwar clashes, Trump made an extreme threat at the beginning of the weekend, only to climb down before oil and stock trading resumed. "Middle East wars are now scheduled from 9pm Friday to 10.30pm Sunday (GMT). That's it. Fighting outside designed non-market hours isn't allowed," Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas joked in June. During the latest period of tension, U.S. officials themselves acknowledged to CBS that the administration wanted "to conclude [its planned attack] by the time financial markets open Monday."

On Monday morning, Trump demanded on Truth Social that oil companies "get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!"

The........

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