Trump Weighs Iran Deal or Strike to 'Finish Them Off'

President Donald Trump said he is choosing between a deal with Iran and a final blow against the regime. He told reporters a new American strike on the Islamic Republic could come "maybe tomorrow." The New York Times reported on Thursday that American and Israeli military officials have drawn up detailed plans for a new round of attacks on Iran that could begin after the November 3 midterm elections.

"My question now is whether I strike a deal with the Iranians or finish them off for good," Trump said.

Asked by a reporter how close he was to ordering new strikes, Trump dismissed the question. "Would you really think I'd tell you that? I mean, can anybody from the Wall Street Journal ask a question so stupid?" He then made clear the military option is still open. "While we're thinking about doing it, and maybe tomorrow, do you really think I'm going to tell you? If I'm going to do it, and there's a possibility I will, there's also a possibility we'll have a nice, big, beautiful agreement. They want to make a deal. But the problem is, will they hold the deal?"

Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Georgia on Saturday night, He defended his decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying he left it "just in time" and calling the deal "a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran." He claimed that Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury had "obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity." He also mocked the state of the regime's leadership: "Level one leadership is gone, level two leadership is gone."

Trump claimed Iran has no fighter jets left, that 259 of its ships are "at the bottom of the sea," and that its radar has been knocked out. He put Iranian inflation at 301% and laid out the choice ahead: "The question is, do we finish that, which would not be difficult, or do we make a deal with them? And that's going to be up to them."

He said he could have carried out a single B-2 bombing run a year ago and walked away, but argued that would not have lasted. "Over the course of a year, a year and a half, two years, they would have somehow figured a way to make a nuclear bomb. I've got to make it permanent."

On Friday, Tom Barrack, Washington's ambassador in Ankara, who also serves as Trump's envoy on Syria and Iraq, told podcaster Mario Nawfal that a weekend strike was "absolutely" possible. Barrack added that the president is "open, and available and accessible to a deal." When reporters raised those comments with him, Trump replied: "If that's the case, I don't know anything about it."

Later that day, at a rally in Florida, Trump issued another warning: "We may do another little Epic Fury, or they'll agree." He added: "If they're smart, they'll just say, 'Let's get down to business.' But, you know, I doubt they'll do that because perhaps they're not smart."