Amid ongoing negotiations to prevent the world’s principal state sponsor of terrorism from becoming a nuclear-armed terrorist state, President Donald Trump launched an accusation on Tuesday that doesn’t bode well for the talks’ success.
In an interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier, Trump said Iran has become “much more aggressive” in its posture with the United States.
And the stakes keep getting higher.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 10, 2025
“Iran is acting much differently in negotiations than it did just days ago,” Trump said, according to Fox.
“Much more aggressive. It’s surprising to me. It’s disappointing, but we are set to meet again tomorrow — we’ll see.”
There’s little question that Iran’s quest to become a nuclear power is a top danger of triggering regional war in the Middle East.
The mullahs who have run the Islamic State since the revolution that deposed the shah’s regime in 1979 have made no secret of their hatred for the United States — which they call the “Great Satan” — or Israel — which they refer to as the “Little Satan.”
Should Trump stop negotiating with Iran?
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama entered into a toothless agreement with Tehran, supported by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, that was supposedly going to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
But in an interview published July 14, 2015, with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Obama himself didn’t sound confident about how long it would last.
“Judge me on one thing,” Obama told Friedman. “Does this deal prevent Iran from breaking out with a nuclear weapon for the next 10 years and is that a better outcome for America, Israel and our Arab allies than any other alternative on the table?”
Trump walked away from the Iran deal during his first term, calling it “defective at its core.”
He instead launched a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions that ended up costing the Iranian government billions.
When Joe Biden took office in 2021, he reversed Trump’s policies and tried to breathe new life into the 2015 deal, raising concerns from American lawmakers in both parties.
Now, with Trump back in office — and only a month shy of exactly 10 years since Obama’s interview with Friedman — the Islamic Republic is still intent on achieving nuclear capability.
Considering that Tehran has been the epicenter of global terrorism since the Islamic revolution, and spent the lax years of the Biden administration growing its proxy forces throughout the Middle East, there’s little question that it would use at least the threat of nuclear weapons to spread its malignant ideology around the world.
It would also pose an existential threat to Israel, a country Iran attacked in October with a massive force of missiles and drones that was largely deflected by Israeli defenses.
Trump has made no secret of his desire to have Iran come to an agreement diplomatically, but he has also, repeatedly, made it clear that he considers a nuclear Iran to be unacceptable.
His statement to Baier on Tuesday shows the current talks aren’t making the progress Trump wants.
If Iran’s aggressive intransigence continues, Trump is going to have to back up his words … or not. Either way, he’s going to be sending a message about how much American foreign policy statements actually matter.
And the rest of the world’s nations, including American foes like Russia, China, and North Korea, are going to be paying attention.
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