Iran has once again rejected direct talks with the United States, and President Trump is not playing games. In a no-nonsense interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump warned that if the regime doesn’t come to the table, they could face devastating consequences.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” He also floated the idea of reinstating punishing tariffs: “There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
Trump issued a similar warning from the Oval Office just two days earlier, urging Iran’s leadership to wake up before it’s too late. But the message didn’t seem to land.
According to reports, Iran responded through Oman to Trump’s overture, refusing to engage directly with the U.S. while under economic pressure and military threats. Iran’s Foreign Minister restated their policy Thursday, and President Masoud Pezeshkian doubled down over the weekend, saying direct talks are off the table, though indirect communication could continue. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reportedly still open to those backchannel discussions.
This isn’t Trump’s first rodeo with Tehran. He famously pulled the U.S. out of the disastrous 2015 nuclear deal during his first term and reimposed harsh sanctions. Those measures crippled Iran’s economy and curbed its nuclear ambitions—until Biden came along. Under the previous administration, many of those restrictions were eased, and Iran predictably resumed its nuclear push.
“Bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran!”
President @realDonaldTrump on his letter to the Islamofascist regime and what happens if they make the wrong decision. pic.twitter.com/xq5cOoVBTf
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) March 30, 2025
Now Trump’s looking to reassert America’s leverage, possibly with “secondary tariffs”—which would target not just Iran, but foreign companies doing business with them. He recently signed an executive order enabling similar penalties on buyers of Venezuelan oil, and he made it clear that Russia and Iran could be next.
While Trump didn’t offer specifics about what kind of tariffs are being considered, the message is loud and clear: Iran is on thin ice, and time is running out.
Trump’s hardline stance is a return to the peace-through-strength doctrine that kept bad actors in check throughout his first term. It stands in stark contrast to the appeasement strategies that emboldened the mullahs and gave them breathing room to enrich uranium beyond agreed limits.
Iran’s saber-rattling might play well in Tehran, but the regime knows Trump means business. They’ve seen what he’s willing to do when red lines are crossed. The Ayatollah may cling to backdoor diplomacy for now, but if the regime pushes too far, they might find out exactly what “bombing like you’ve never seen before” looks like.
This time, there may not be a second warning.