President tells Axios strikes would exceed February's campaign as no military order has been issued yet
President Trump told Axios's Barak Ravid on Thursday that he is "close to making a decision" on what he called a "massive attack" against Iran, describing it as larger than any prior US operation against the country. "I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it," Trump said.
Two US officials told Axios no final military order has been issued and no deadline has been set. The interview arrives on the 12th consecutive night of US airstrikes on Iranian military targets, part of a campaign CENTCOM says aims to "further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels" in the Strait of Hormuz.
Twelve nights of strikes, no shift in Tehran's position
The current bombing campaign resumed after the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding collapsed in early July, ending a truce that had briefly reopened Hormuz to commercial traffic. Iran's IRGC said Thursday that three tankers attempted a mined route south of the strait; one "exploded and caught fire," two turned back, and Tehran warned any vessel moving without its coordination "will meet the same fate."
Trump's threatened attack is explicitly framed as surpassing Operation Epic Fury, the joint US-Israeli campaign launched February 28, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called an "overwhelming victory" in April. Trump said Iran "hasn't received enough pain yet" — a claim in tension with his own administration's earlier declaration of decisive success.
Observers are reading: what Pickaxe Mountain's inclusion on the target list signals about the attack's actual scope.
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Congress splinters as oil crosses $100
Domestic constraints are tightening even as rhetoric escalates. The House passed a war powers resolution 214-208 directing troop withdrawal absent congressional authorization, with four Republicans defecting. The Senate failed to advance a similar measure 47-49. Brent crude topped $100 a barrel Thursday; Hegseth testified this week the war has cost $37.5 billion. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the situation is "getting out of control" and called for restraint.
Mediation efforts — Iran's interior minister in Pakistan, Iraq's prime minister in Tehran — have produced movement without breakthrough. Araghchi insists Iran has "no shortage of mediators" but has not accepted the latest proposal on the table. Trump's interview functions less as an opening to negotiate than as a public marker of intent, one still unaccompanied by an order to the military that would make it real.
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