WASHINGTON — President Trump was asked Friday whether the US has given Iran a “deadline to make a deal.”
“Only they know,” he responded, adding that he has sent the message to Tehran directly.
A day before, Trump said he wanted just “two things” from Iran: “Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters,” adding that “lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now.”
The US has at least eight warships in the Middle East, and the president has repeatedly threatened military action if Iran fails to make a “deal” with the US, though details about such an arrangement have been few.
Trump later deflected a question about whether he had a “timeline” to begin drawing down the American naval buildup in the region.
“We’ll see how it all works. They have to float someplace, they might as well float near Iran,” Trump said. “But it’s a rough situation going in.”
What‘s the deal?
Despite Trump’s repeated warnings, the details of what Washington actually wants from Iran remain sparse.
Weeks after the latest threats began, Foundation for Defending Democracies’ Iran program director Behnam Ben Tableau said it’s still unclear whether the administration’s endgame is nuclear containment, punishment for protest crackdowns, missile deterrence or broader regime pressure.
“The million dollar question is, what is the purpose of the military operation? Is it just punishments, because we promised to hold them accountable and just punish and withdraw?” he said. “Or is it to resume the logic of defanging the regime after the 12 day war and take advantage of the situation because it’s weak?”
Trump on Friday claimed his pressure so far on Tehran earlier this month forced the regime to halt a planned mass execution — after Iran’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.
“They were going to hang 837 people. And I told them, ‘If you do it, you’re going to pay a price like nobody’s ever paid before.’ And they pulled back,” Trump said. “I appreciated that.”
But Iranian officials have denied the president’s claim, with some mocking him for believing such an idea.
“The US president has said he stopped the execution of 800 people in Iran, but this is completely false,” Iranian Prosecutor General Mohammad Movahedi Azad told Iranian state media last week. “The judiciary is an independent institution and does not take orders from foreigners.”
Regardless, Trump acknowledged that violence continues inside Iran — making clear it needs to stop before it’s too late.
“A lot of people are being killed, so we’ll see what happens,” he said. “I can say this: They do want to make a deal.”
But what kind of deal the US would — or could — accept still remains in the air, at least publicly.
“I think he’s seriously, genuinely weighing all options. And I think something that we saw from Trump, even just last year, is that he can pursue multiple options at the same time,” Tableau said.
“I actually think he’s comfortable bringing the assets into the region and making allies and adversaries — but more importantly, the regime — sweat,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Friday signaled openness to some kind of a nuclear deal, but said the only way that Tehran would participate in talks is if Trump lowers the pressure.
“Iran has always welcomed a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable NUCLEAR DEAL—on equal footing, and free from coercion, threats, and intimidation—which ensures Iran’s rights to PEACEFUL nuclear technology, and guarantees NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS,” he posted to X.
“Such weapons have no place in our security calculations and we have NEVER sought to acquire them,” he further claimed.
However, his message did not mention Trump’s second key concern: Iran’s slaying of its citizens.
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Not just nuclear
In recent weeks, the president has repeatedly framed Iran’s killing of protesters as a central grievance, calling on Tehran to stop executions and warning of consequences if repression continues.
Foreign policy hawks say narrowing negotiations to nuclear concessions alone would risk undercutting Trump’s leverage — and betraying the Iranian people at a moment when the regime is weaker than ever.
Israeli officials have suggested the US should focus on Iran’s ballistic missile network, the regime’s primary tool for regional intimidation.
But some analysts warn that striking missile sites alone would miss the political point — doing little to hold accountable the security forces responsible for killing protesters in Tehran, Mashhad, and Tabriz.
The challenge, Tableau said, is aligning military pressure with political objectives: weakening Iran’s capacity to strike abroad while supporting domestic unrest against the regime’s repression.
“The Iranian public position, be they military or not, is to say that [they] will respond to even a limited attack in an unlimited way, because they understand how weak they are,” he said. “They don’t want this to have a contagion effect; they don’t want it to bleed into regime change.”
But an Iranian retaliation would likely not end well for the regime, possibly hastening their downfall — or worse, dragging the US into a larger conflict.
“One of the most consistent things about President Trump in term one and term two is that if you kill Americans, he’s going to get you,” Tableau said.
During both of his terms, Trump has shown a willingness to retaliate decisively when Americans are harmed — raising the stakes if Tehran follows through on its warnings.
