{"id":15680,"date":"2026-07-24T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15680"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:00:46","slug":"exclusive-trump-close-to-decision-on-massive-attack-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15680","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Trump &quot;close&quot; to decision on &quot;massive attack&quot; on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/njGu3UhG7vDYQ_1F5zDSHCQfOTo=\/0x0:4662x2622\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/23\/1784820087552.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>President Trump told Axios on Thursday that he&#8217;s seriously considering restarting major combat operations in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/world\/iran\" target=\"_blank\">Iran<\/a> \u2014 including strikes that would be bigger than the ones carried out during Operation Epic Fury. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> In a brief interview, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences and stressed he hasn&#8217;t made a determination yet. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump didn&#8217;t give a deadline for his decision. Two other U.S. officials confirmed no call has been made and no new orders have been given to the military. <\/li>\n<li>The current escalation has caused <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/energy-climate\/oil-companies\" target=\"_blank\">oil<\/a> prices to eclipse $100 per barrel. A return to all-out war is highly unpopular in the U.S.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What he&#8217;s saying:<\/strong> &#8220;I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,&#8221; the president said. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/world\/israel\" target=\"_blank\">Israel<\/a> &#8220;would join in two minutes if I ask them to,&#8221; but added that &#8220;we don&#8217;t need anybody&#8221; to launch a new operation against Iran. <\/li>\n<li>He also said there would be &#8220;consequences&#8221; for Israel joining the strikes, hinting at Iranian retaliation against Israel. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The big picture:<\/strong> Trump said the Iranians &#8220;want to negotiate&#8221; but are not ready to make a deal at the moment.  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t received enough pain yet,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<li>Two regional sources with knowledge of mediation efforts said Iranian leadership hasn&#8217;t accepted the latest proposal put forward.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;We are trying, but the Iranians are not being helpful,&#8221; one of them said.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> The U.S. has been escalating its attacks over the past 12 days in an effort to stop Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/14\/oil-hormuz-pipelines-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a>. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, Iran hasn&#8217;t shown any willingness to change course \u2014 it, too, has intensified attacks in the region. <\/li>\n<li>Iran-backed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/13\/trump-bin-salman-houthis-yemen\" target=\"_blank\">Houthi rebels<\/a> in Yemen have started attacking Saudi ships in the Red Sea, exacerbating tensions in another critical oil shipping route and further destabilizing the global energy market. <\/li>\n<li>Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/%40realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116969243226176328\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> on his Truth Social account that if the Houthis fire again at ships in the Red Sea, &#8220;the U.S. will hold Iran responsible.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The Houthis, he said, are an Iranian proxy and therefore &#8220;major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What to watch:<\/strong> Separately, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/16\/netanyahu-mystery-trump-meeting\" target=\"_blank\">Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> wants to attend the late Sen. Lindsey Graham&#8217;s wake in Washington next week. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Relations with Bibi are very good. I would meet with him if he is here,&#8221; Trump said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump told Axios on Thursday that he&#8217;s seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran \u2014 including strikes that would be bigger than the ones carried out during Operation Epic Fury. Why it matters: In a brief interview, Trump acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences and stressed he hasn&#8217;t made a determination&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/njGu3UhG7vDYQ_1F5zDSHCQfOTo=\/0x0:4662x2622\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/23\/1784820087552.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}