President Trump has directed the military to prepare a fresh wave of strikes against Iran that could begin within days, a sharp escalation after an Iranian missile attack on American forces in Jordan during active negotiations.
Trump previewed the coming offensive at a Friday cabinet meeting at Camp David, telling his war cabinet the United States is "going big" and accusing Tehran of negotiating in bad faith while simultaneously targeting American troops. The New York Post reported that the military has drafted multiple options for fresh attacks, including a sustained bombing campaign lasting ten to fourteen days and potential strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure, including electricity serving Tehran.
The order follows a sequence that would test any commander-in-chief's patience. On Wednesday, while Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was engaged in negotiations with Iranian counterparts, Iran launched five missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan. Trump learned of the attack not from his negotiator but from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump recounted the moment at Camp David with visible frustration. He said he had been waiting for Witkoff to call with a progress report on the diplomatic talks when Hegseth phoned instead with news of the missile strike.
"I mean, I'm waiting for Steve to call me, 'How's the negotiation going?' And instead, I got a call from Pete that they just shot five missiles at one of our bases in Jordan."
The U.S. military hit back the same day. U.S. Central Command struck dozens of targets tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including command centers and missile and drone facilities. CENTCOM called the strikes a "powerful response" to Tehran. That response followed earlier rounds of U.S. strikes against Iranian military assets, part of a conflict that has intensified since Trump declared the April 8 ceasefire finished.
But the Wednesday retaliation was not the end. It was the beginning of a larger decision.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had directed additional strikes that could begin as soon as this weekend. U.S. officials told the Journal the strikes "would last a few days." CENTCOM head Admiral Brad Cooper drafted the more aggressive option, a ten-to-fourteen-day sustained bombing campaign. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, meanwhile, reportedly urged caution, warning the White House that an expanded campaign would further strain American stockpiles of air-defense interceptors needed to protect U.S. forces and allies worldwide.
CBS News reported that the U.S. has so far held back from attacking Iran's energy infrastructure but that restraint may be ending. High-level discussions are underway about cutting electricity across Tehran, a move that would mark a significant escalation from strikes limited to military and IRGC-linked targets.
Trump did not specify which plan he intends to pursue. At Camp David, he acknowledged Iran still has "some military capabilities" but added a pointed qualifier.
"But soon they won't have some left."
He also said Iran may "get a little stronger maybe now, but they'll get weaker." Asked whether he had ruled out a cease-fire, Trump was blunt: "We just want to win."
The Iranian missile attack on the Jordan base came amid a broader pattern of escalation. Two American service members were killed defending a U.S. base in Jordan during earlier Iranian attacks, and the military has conducted sustained nightly operations against Iranian missile depots and air defenses in the weeks since.
The diplomatic track, such as it remains, appears close to collapse. Trump characterized the Iranian regime as "very dishonest" and "very dishonorable to deal with." He told reporters at Camp David that his confidence in negotiations has eroded.
"I'm losing faith in them because they do lie."
A senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal that Trump "is in an escalatory mood" but is still weighing "the depth of that response." That framing suggests the president has not yet locked in the most aggressive option but has not taken it off the table either.
On Wednesday, in a phone interview with Fox News shortly after the Iranian missile strike, Trump used blunt language about what was coming. He said the U.S. would "beat the f***ing s***" out of Iran and that "we'll be hitting them hard." At that point, he had not yet closed the door on diplomacy entirely, saying, "we're going to let them keep talking."
By Friday, that window appeared to have narrowed considerably. The shift from "let them keep talking" to "I'm losing faith" happened in roughly forty-eight hours, the span between the Jordan missile attack and the Camp David meeting.
The U.S. military has been striking Iranian missile depots and air defenses for consecutive nights, a tempo that underscores how far the conflict has moved beyond the April 8 ceasefire that ended what officials described as the first phase of the war.
A source familiar with internal discussions offered a revealing picture of the divisions inside Iran's own government. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf are on one side of an internal split; the IRGC is on the other. The source said Tehran's negotiators are on a "completely different page" than the IRGC, which the source characterized as war-hungry.
That internal fracture may explain why Iran launched missiles at American forces even as its diplomats were engaged in talks, a contradiction that would be difficult for any U.S. administration to overlook. Negotiations, the source said, have been "fruitless," and mediators are growing frustrated at the lack of progress.
The broader pattern of Iranian aggression extends beyond conventional military strikes. Federal investigators have probed a possible Iranian connection to cyberattacks on water systems in multiple states, illustrating the range of threats Tehran poses beyond the battlefield.
Asked directly whether he feared further Iranian retaliation, Trump did not dismiss the possibility but framed it as a reason for vigilance, not retreat.
"It'd be foolish to say no; you always have to keep your guard up."
Trump's initial response to the IRGC attack promised a forceful answer, and the strikes that followed the same day delivered on that promise. The question now is how much further he is prepared to go, and whether Iran's internal divisions will produce a diplomatic off-ramp before a sustained campaign begins.
When a regime fires missiles at your troops while its diplomats smile across the table, trust is not a casualty of war, it was never on the field to begin with.
