Trump: US Will "Finish the Job" in Iran

US President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that the United States will resume and complete military action against Iran if Tehran does not accept American terms for ending the war and addressing its nuclear program.

“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” Trump said before departing for a high-stakes visit to China, where he is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump rejected the idea that rising prices and market pressure in the US were driving his push for a deal, saying his focus was preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations,” he said. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

Trump said he did not expect to need China’s help in resolving the conflict, despite Beijing’s ties with Tehran and its continued role as a major consumer of Iranian oil.

“I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said. “We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise.”

The comments came as Iran remained defiant following Trump’s rejection of its latest proposal. Tehran’s response reportedly called for an end to the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports, and the release of Iranian assets frozen under sanctions.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington had no alternative but to accept Iran’s 14-point plan.

“There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people,” Ghalibaf wrote on X, warning that any other approach would produce “one failure after another.”

Trump, however, called Iran’s response “totally unacceptable” and said the ceasefire was close to collapse. He claimed Iran had privately agreed that it would never have nuclear weapons, but then failed to include that commitment in its written response.

“We don’t play games,” Trump said. “We are either gonna make a deal or they will be decimated.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday that it held drills in Tehran to improve combat readiness against what it called the “American-Zionist enemy.” A Defense Ministry spokesman warned that if Washington did not accept Iran’s demands diplomatically, it should expect defeat on the battlefield.

The escalating rhetoric has rattled oil markets and renewed fears that the war could resume. Iran continues to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and is seeking to impose tolls on ships, while the US has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports.

US intelligence assessments reportedly indicate that Iran still has access to 30 of its 33 missile sites near Hormuz, along with most of its mobile launchers and prewar missile stockpile, leaving it capable of threatening ships in the waterway.