JERUSALEM, Israel – After two weeks of a renewed U.S. bombing campaign, the military is surging additional assets into the Middle East. The buildup gives President Trump more options as he weighs whether to expand the conflict with Iran.
Trump attended services at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday to honor fallen U.S. servicemen and women.
“We are going to Dover,” Trump stated. “Some of you are going with us to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and all of them said very strongly, we can’t let, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump added, “So we’re going to honor them. And, one of the hardest things to do for me, it’s one of the hardest things to do as a president. But it has to be done.”
The president also escalated his warning to Tehran. On Truth Social, he pledged that if Iran or its proxies attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. would retaliate by striking Iranian infrastructure, including bridges or power plants.
“This is with this skirmish we have with the Islamic Republic of Iran. And I call that because let me tell you, they’re getting hit so hard. And they want to make a deal. But I say, they’re not ready to make a deal. Because every time they make a deal, they want to change it and everything. They’re not ready. They’ll be ready very soon.”
As Washington boosts military pressure on Iran, it’s also reshaping alliances across the Middle East. The White House announced a landmark 30-year, multi-billion dollar civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia.
While the deal could eventually include uranium enrichment, the administration insists it will not increase the risk of nuclear proliferation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio remarked, “Well, I’m not going to opine directly on that agreement. We’re going to put out, even when the moment is appropriate, we’ll put out that in writing. We have to do it with Congress anyway, so we’ll certainly do it publicly. But suffice it to say the US is not going to reach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation.”
The Middle East conflict is also spilling into the U.S. political arena. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged that he has no legal authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he address the U.N. General Assembly in September, despite earlier threats to do so.
Senator John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) dismissed the threat, saying Mamdani should focus on “picking up the trash and filling potholes.” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz called the remarks “political theater.”
