President Trump told the Iranian people to "rise up and fight" their own government on Tuesday, brushing aside reports that months of U.S. airstrikes are designed to drag Tehran to the negotiating table, a framing he rejected as irrelevant.
Trump posted on Truth Social hours after U.S. Central Command announced it had completed another round of strikes on Iranian targets, the second barrage since Sunday night and the first campaign after a monthlong pause in airstrikes between the two countries. In his post, Trump took aim at an ABC News report he said mischaracterized the purpose of the strikes, though the specific report he referenced was not identified.
The president's message was blunt. He said he has no interest in forcing Iran into an agreement and framed Tehran's position as already collapsing under the weight of U.S. military and economic pressure, a posture that has defined his approach throughout the conflict.
"I'm not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table, as ABC Fake News reported. I couldn't care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"
That final line, addressed not to Iran's government but to its citizens, marked a notable escalation in rhetoric. Trump had previously claimed Iranian officials were "begging" for a deal to end the conflict. Now he bypassed the regime entirely and spoke over its head to the population.
Tuesday's strikes came more than six months into a U.S., Iran conflict that has steadily intensified despite periodic pauses and failed diplomatic overtures. CENTCOM described the latest operations as retaliation for Tehran targeting U.S. forces in Jordan and commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply passes.
The scale of the U.S. campaign has been enormous. In the early days of Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S., Israel military campaign, American bombers struck nearly 200 targets deep inside Iran in just 72 hours and sank more than 30 Iranian ships, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Pentagon officials said Iranian ballistic missile attacks dropped 90 percent and drone attacks fell 83 percent after the operation began. Over 50,000 U.S. soldiers were involved.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put it plainly at the time: "Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran. We've got no shortage of munitions."
A separate July strike campaign hit more than 80 targets, including Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, and over 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats, the New York Post reported. That operation was described as "four or five times bigger in scope and power" than previous rounds. Trump personally approved the strike plan while attending the NATO summit in Turkey.
The president also paired military action with sweeping economic measures, launching what he called "Economic D-Day" against Tehran and threatening sanctions on any nation doing business with the regime.
Tuesday's events carried a grim civilian dimension. Iranian state media reported that a U.S. airstrike struck a wedding in Kuhestak, a coastal city near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials said at least five people were killed, including a child, and at least 68 others were wounded.
CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins told the Washington Examiner in a statement that the command was aware of the reports from Iranian state media and emphasized that the U.S. military does not target civilians. Hawkins did not confirm or deny the specifics of the Iranian account, and his full statement was not published verbatim.
It remained unclear whether the reported Kuhestak strike was part of Tuesday's announced CENTCOM operations or a separate incident. The gap between the Iranian government's claims and CENTCOM's acknowledgment left the facts in dispute, a pattern that has repeated throughout the conflict.
What distinguishes Trump's rhetoric on Iran from the standard diplomatic language of prior administrations is how consistently it has been followed by military force. When he declared a "Zero Tolerance" policy on mine placement in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. forces struck two IRGC rocket launchers on Larak Island after observing preparations to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the waterway, Breitbart reported. That strike came just days before Tuesday's escalation.
Earlier in the conflict, after Iran shot down a U.S. Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, Trump ordered retaliatory strikes on Iranian air defense and radar systems. "This is a response to what they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that's what this one is," Trump told ABC News at the time.
That June 9 retaliation came shortly after Trump had announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, an agreement that was already fraying when Iran downed the helicopter. The pattern repeated: ceasefire, violation, escalation, more strikes.
Trump has also declared the United States the "Guardian" of the Strait of Hormuz, a claim backed by CENTCOM operations that cleared Iranian sea mines from internationally recognized shipping lanes. The IRGC vowed retaliation after the Larak Island strikes, with spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi warning that "the adversary will face the ramifications of this faulty calculus across both the economic and military arenas."
Iran's threats have not slowed the American campaign. CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper summarized the trajectory in stark terms: "U.S. combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines."
Trump's Tuesday post represented a deliberate departure from the diplomatic framing that has surrounded the conflict. For months, analysts and media outlets have suggested the strikes are meant to push Iran toward a nuclear or security agreement. Trump rejected that premise outright.
He said he preferred the current American position, military dominance over the Strait of Hormuz and a collapsing Iranian economy, to any signed deal. He called such an agreement "worthless, to them," a phrase that could be read as dismissing the value Tehran itself would place on any commitment it made.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump warned that Iranian retaliation against U.S. strikes would be met with intense military action, saying the country would "be no longer." The full text of that warning was not published.
Vice President Vance has previously defended Trump's provocative social media posts about Iran, describing them as warnings rather than military announcements. But with each post followed by real ordnance, the distinction has grown thin.
The U.S. military has reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic after clearing Iranian mines, and Trump has framed the operation as a vindication of his approach. Whether the Iranian people hear his call to "rise up", and what it would mean if they did, remains the largest unanswered question of the conflict.
Trump is not negotiating. He is not bluffing. And he is no longer talking to the mullahs.