Former President Donald Trump said the United States would resume a wide war against Iran if it does not obtain everything it wants.
The threat signals a potential shift toward maximum military pressure, increasing the risk of direct conflict between Washington and Tehran.
Speaking in an interview with the French television channel LCI on July 26, 2026, Trump said that military action would be the inevitable result if the U.S. failed to achieve its goals [1]. He linked the possibility of conflict directly to the level of concessions obtained from the Iranian government.
Trump said the United States would need to obtain 100% [1] of what it wants to avoid a return to hostilities. The former president suggested that the U.S. would act militarily if it did not achieve all of its objectives, a stance that implies a lack of willingness to compromise on key security or diplomatic demands [1], [2].
Reports from Al Jazeera and Arabi21 indicate that Trump's warnings specifically target Iran's response to Washington's demands [2], [3]. The former president's rhetoric focuses on the necessity of total compliance to prevent the resumption of a large-scale military campaign [2].
This approach mirrors previous strategies of economic and political isolation, though the explicit mention of a "wide war" elevates the stakes of the current diplomatic tension [3]. Trump said he did not specify the exact nature of the objectives required to satisfy the 100% threshold, but he framed the outcome as a binary choice between total success and war [1].
“If we do not get 100% of what we want, it will certainly happen”
This rhetoric suggests a return to a 'maximum pressure' campaign, where the U.S. uses the threat of total war as a primary negotiating lever. By setting a threshold of 100% compliance, Trump is signaling a departure from incremental diplomacy, potentially forcing Iran into a position where it must either concede entirely or prepare for a large-scale military confrontation.
