President Trump said early Wednesday that Iran’s leaders had “better get smart soon” and agree to give up their nuclear program as the war between Washington and Tehran passed its two-month anniversary.
“Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after 4 a.m. alongside an AL-generated illustration of him clad in a dark suit and aviator sunglasses while carrying an AK-47 rifle as explosions went off in the background.
“No more Mr. Nice Guy!” read a slogan accompanying the image.
The White House has expressed increasing frustration with Iran’s unwillingness to discuss its atomic ambitions, with the Islamic Republic demanding the topic be set aside until a peace deal is agreed and the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened to shipping.
“Suffice it to say that the nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Monday. “If Iran was just a radical country run by radical people, you know, it’d still be a problem. But they are revolutionary. In essence, they seek to expand and export their revolution. Not just what they do in Iran. That’s why they’re with Hezbollah in Lebanon. That’s they’ve supported Hamas. That’s how they’ve support the militias in Iraq. They don’t just seek to dominate Iran. They seek to dominate the region. And imagine that with a nuclear weapon.”
Rubio went on to describe the Strait of Hormuz, through which an estimated one-fifth of the world’s oil passes every year, as “an economic nuclear weapon that [Iran is] trying to use against the world, and they’re bragging about it. They’re putting up billboards in Tehran bragging how they can hold 25% or 20% of the world’s energy hostage.
“Imagine if those same people had access to a nuclear weapons. They would hold the whole region hostage.”
Trump’s Wednesday morning post came hours before War Secretary Pete Hegseth was due to answer questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the first time since Operation Epic Fury began Feb. 28.
The hearing before the House Armed Services Committee is being held to discuss the administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion — but the war with Iran is expected to dominate proceedings.
