Trump announces ‘Economic D-Day’ against Iran as war nears six-month mark

President Donald Trump has declared an “Economic D-Day” against Iran, announcing what he called the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said Iran had failed to take the opportunity for a deal and would face economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale. He warned that any country allowing its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide a lifeline to Iran would itself face tremendous economic consequences.

“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are,” Trump wrote. He called on allies to stand with the United States to isolate and defeat the Iran threat.

The announcement comes as the war, launched jointly with Israel, approaches its six-month mark. U.S. stockpiles of key weapons are diminishing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would detail the measures on Monday and threatened secondary sanctions on nations and companies that do business with Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the threat, posting that Tehran had seen this movie before and that the so-called Economic D-Day was a diversion from America’s own debt crisis. Iran has lived under successive rounds of U.S. sanctions for nearly five decades.

Vice President JD Vance said the conflict had entered a new phase of economic pressure. The USS George Washington has arrived in the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln after its nine-month deployment.

Markets reacted with higher oil prices and a sell-off in U.S. equities. The U.S. national debt has passed $40 trillion.