Trump to Iran: Comply Or Else 'Shootin' Starts, Bigger And Better'

If Donald Trump hoped that the regime in Iran would take an off-ramp before utter destruction, he has ample cause for disappointment. Iran has not stopped firing missiles, and they have not stopped harassing ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. The regime has not yet acknowledged any concession on its stores of highly enriched uranium either, making the agreement signed on Bridge And Power Plant Eve look about as useless as the Iranian Navy. 

Trump and his brain trust tried to put their best face on it yesterday, claiming that Iran's "mosaic" system made immediate missile halts difficult. Trump even tried to play off the regime's attempt to impose "tolls" to pass through the Strait at one point yesterday morning. By late last night, though, Trump clearly had had enough. He posted a warning on Truth Social that threatened a massive military response to further violations:

All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!

Just a few minutes ago, Trump added an observation:

None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!

Indeed, and that's the problem with relaxing pressure at the wrong moment. We'll get back to that point shortly. 

Earlier yesterday, regime foreign minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that the US had not complied with the agreement by stopping Israel's attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump, J.D. Vance, and Marco Rubio had all explained that the agreement between the US and Iran did not bind Israel from continuing to fight Hezbollah, for which Iran had at one time disclaimed any responsibility anyway. Araghchi insisted that the US has to stop Israel before they will comply with the agreement:

The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.

The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments. pic.twitter.com/2bzVlHFKgi

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 8, 2026

Actually, the world has watched as Hezbollah has defied the UN Security Council and cease-fire agreements it has signed that require Hezbollah to disarm and pull out of the sub-Litani region. UNSC Resolution 1701 has been in effect for almost twenty years, a settlement to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and the terror threat to it from Iran's most powerful proxy army. Rather than enforce it, the UN sent peacekeepers (UNIFIL) to monitor compliance, and ended up acting as reluctant human shields while Hezbollah ramped up its own occupation in southern Lebanon. The cease-fire agreement in November 2024 that ended that war with Israel required full compliance with UNSC Resolution 1701, and yet ... here we are, eighteen months later. 

This is the consistent problem in attempting to negotiate with the regime in Tehran; they lie and cheat. They do not see agreements as legal documents, but rather as levers by which to manipulate other parties and exhaust them. That has worked for 47 years, and Araghchi and the remnants of the regime have no intention of using any other strategy, especially good-faith discussions, unless all other options fail. Araghchi talked about this obliquely in the past, calling it part of the Iranian culture:

Iranian and US officials are expected to hold talks on Friday to discuss a long-term settlement after the longtime foes agreed on a Pakistan-brokered two-week ceasefire to suspend a six-week-old war.

The son of an Iranian carpet merchant from Isfahan, Foreign MinisterAbbas Araghchi, who will accompany the parliament speaker in peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, has compared the country's negotiating style to the bartering of the bazaar, an approach requiring "patience and great time."

Well, maybe. At some point, however, the buyer gets the carpet in exchange for the payment. This regime just likes to stall forever and pull the rug out from under its negotiating partners. If this is the regime's culture, then perhaps Trump needs to channel Charles James Napier to explain how our culture approaches perfidious negotiations. As the top British military commander in India in the mid-nineteenth century, Napier explained how British culture would deal with the brutal Hindu "cultural" practice of burning widows alive on funeral pyres, known as sati:

“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

If Araghchi's regime custom is to string out talks forever and cheat on agreements, then lets prepare a demonstration of the American custom in such negotiations: consequences. We have rarely indulged our custom when it comes to Iran, so we may need long, sustained applications of it to get the point across. Bridge And Power Plant Day might be a good start. 

Finally, there is one more problem in trying to negotiate with this regime. Can any element within it actually deliver on an agreement? Does Araghchi actually represent a coherent command structure that can order its military to turn over uranium, stop firing missiles, and cease harassment in the Strait of Hormuz? Or is the regime down to bunker-dwellers and unleashed terrorists in a state of total chaos? Thus far, nothing Iran has done suggests otherwise, which may be another reason to just get on with the next phase of the war and kick out the remaining struts of the regime. 

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.

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