President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that he was weighing a limited military strike to pressure Iran into making a deal.

“I guess I can say I am considering that,” he said at the start of a meeting with governors at the White House.

The Pentagon has been building up naval forces and air power near Iran in recent weeks, one of the largest U.S. buildups in the Middle East in two decades, and Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with another round of strikes if it did not abandon its nuclear program.

Trump has not laid out a clear argument for attacking Iran for a second time in a year or how extensive the attack might be. He hasn’t made public speeches laying out his argument nor has he consulted with Congress.

Weeks ago, the president threatened military action to stop Iran from carrying out a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters. Human rights groups say thousands of protesters were killed in the crackdown, but the U.S. did not act.

More recently, Trump has said the purpose of another U.S. strike would be to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and he has talked about wanting a deal with Iran on that issue, without spelling out any details.

In June, the United States joined an aerial campaign against Iran by Israel, providing bunker-busting bombs that were used to damage Iran’s underground nuclear facilities and set back Iran’s progress toward atomic weapons. Within days of the U.S. strikes, all sides agreed to a ceasefire. No Americans were killed or injured.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By The New York Times/Tierney L. Cross
c. 2026 The New York Times Company