Trump was sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Ankara when he said it. “I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them any more. They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum.”
He was answering a reporter’s question about whether the ceasefire with Iran still held. It was the end of a 15-minute opening monologue that had already taken in Greenland, Spain, the cost of NATO and the United Kingdom.
“They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people and they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump said. He added that U.S. negotiators wanted to keep talking.
Strikes overnight
The U.S. had hit more than 80 Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz in the hours before. It also revoked a temporary sanctions waiver that let Tehran export oil. Both steps followed Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels on Tuesday.
CENTCOM said the strikes on July 7 were “an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.” Iran, in turn, launched new attacks on U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and other Gulf countries, NewsX reported.
Trump put the blame on Tehran. “We say, ‘Go and do your funeral stuff,’ and instead of that, they start shooting rockets at ships yesterday. So we hit them very hard last night,” he said.
A summit that went sideways
European leaders had gone into the day worried. Trump had seemed in a bad mood after a NATO dinner on Tuesday night, and officials braced for a rough Wednesday morning, according to the Guardian.
He said he was “very upset with Nato.” Allies, he complained, “didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran.” That was a reference to European countries other than the UK refusing to let U.S. bombers fly from their air bases. He had a separate dig at Britain. “The United Kingdom wouldn’t let us use the island for two weeks, so we had to fly back,” he said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had at first kept RAF Fairford off limits before allowing limited attacks on Iranian missile sites.
On Greenland, he said: “Greenland is a big problem for us.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had said earlier that Denmark would defend “every inch” of its territory and that Greenland was “of course not for sale.”
Spain drew the sharpest line. After Madrid rejected the 3.5% of GDP defence spending target that every other member accepted last year, Trump said: “I don’t want to do any trade with them, alright?” He turned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who replied: “Yes, sir.” Spanish government sources said they were taking it calmly and had no intention of changing the relationship with the U.S.
Rutte tried flattery. He told Trump he had done what Eisenhower failed to do on spending: “It’s your win.” He also said only a few “isolated cases” of allies blocking U.S. flights had occurred.
New sanctions on Friday
Two days later Trump wrote on social media that Iran had asked to continue talks and that the U.S. agreed, but that “the Cease Fire is OVER!” Hours afterward, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Dubai-based Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, several exchange houses and two alleged front companies, CDM Trading Limited in Hong Kong and Naba Alzaki Raw Materials Trading LLC in the UAE.
Treasury alleged that Ansari ran a global network of assets that benefited Mojtaba Khamenei and other senior figures. “The so-called Supreme Leader is hiding in seclusion while his regime crumbles,” Bessent said.
CENTCOM said it struck approximately 80 targets on July 7, including more than 60 IRGC small boats, and another 90 on July 8.
Sources
- Trump declares ceasefire with Iran over during angry broadside at Nato summit
- Trump Declares Iran Ceasefire Over as U.S. Unveils New Sanctions
- 'Ceasefire Is Over': Trump Declares End of Iran Deal After Fresh US Strikes—What Happens Next?
