President Donald Trump is preparing to dramatically escalate his “Economic Fury” campaign against Iran, with new measures coming next week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Thursday.
He added the move has “never been seen in the history of economic isolation” while coupled with a U.S. naval blockade aimed at preventing anything from moving in or out of Iranian ports.
“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week,” Bessent said Thursday night on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight. “We are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country.”
Bessent described the coming measures as the latest escalation of a pressure campaign Trump restored after returning to office and has steadily intensified against the Iranian regime.
“A year ago, March of ’25, the president gave me the order to apply maximum pressure to the Iranian regime, and Treasury did,” Bessent said.
Since then, he said, Treasury has gone after Iranian “bank accounts, crypto wallets, assets around the world,” while cutting off financial flows to regime leaders and the government itself.
Bessent pointed to the collapse of a major Iranian bank late last year to illustrate the impact Treasury was already having before the current conflict began, saying the failure forced Iran’s central bank to print money and fueled a surge in inflation as the country’s economy deteriorated.
The military phase that began in February marked another turn. After weeks of U.S. strikes under Operation Epic Fury, Bessent said the administration shifted toward a new phase centered on tightening the financial pressure on Tehran.
“We went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury,” he said.
Trump has now ordered Treasury to raise that pressure again.
“At the president’s orders, we have raised the level even again,” Bessent said.
Bessent described the strategy as a “one-two punch” combining economic isolation with the continuing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
“It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports,” he said.
His remarks capped a day in which senior Trump administration officials publicly laid out different elements of the same strategy: tighten the economic vise, sustain maritime pressure for as long as necessary, restore more stable energy flows through the Gulf, and preserve overwhelming military force if Tehran chooses to escalate.
Vice President JD Vance described the broader approach Thursday as the deliberate use of diplomatic, economic, and military power toward two overriding goals: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and returning Hormuz to conditions that stabilize energy prices.
“The thing I can say with confidence is I think this ends with the United States in a stronger position, with Iran not having a nuclear weapon, and with the Strait of Hormuz returned to a place where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people,” Vance said during an interview with Fox News host Will Cain.
Asked about the apparent “seesaw” between diplomacy, military threats, and economic pressure, Vance said the shifts instead reflect the range of options available to Trump.
“You’re seeing a president of the United States at the height of his authority with a lot of tools — diplomatic, military, and economic,” Vance said.
The administration, he added, is using those tools “very selectively, very strategically” to produce the outcome Trump is seeking.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth made the maritime component equally explicit earlier Thursday, saying the Navy can sustain the blockade for as long as necessary and directly rejecting any calculation in Tehran that it can simply wait Washington out.
“We can hold the blockade as long as we need to. Indefinitely,” Hegseth told reporters in Panama.
The Navy can maintain that pressure by rotating ships through the region, Hegseth said, before invoking the same phrase Trump has used to describe the blockade.
“No other nation on Earth, no other Navy on Earth, can have a ‘wall of steel’ like the U.S. Navy — and then the willingness to use it as we have,” he said.
Hegseth then made the intended message to Tehran unmistakable.
“Iran knows it can’t get in and out on this blockade,” he said. “They know there’s no timeline on it either.”
Trump has repeatedly driven home the same point, declaring Wednesday that Washington has “total control” of Hormuz and indicating that he intends to maintain it.
“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” he added.
The administration is also arguing that Iran’s ability to use Hormuz as economic leverage is shrinking even as Washington becomes more capable of moving Gulf energy supplies through and around the waterway.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday that Tehran remains capable of disrupting regional commerce but is pursuing what he called a “losing strategy.”
“Iran is attempting to hold the world economy hostage and to terrorize their neighbors,” Wright told Fox News’ Bret Baier.
He said sustained pressure would ultimately “lead to the collapse of this regime in Iran as their economy gets strangled.”
Wright argued that the balance is gradually shifting against Tehran.
“Their ability to cause difficulties are declining. Our ability to escort and bring products out of that region is growing,” he said. “They have sort of one card, and it’s shrinking in size.”
Wright said U.S. government data show roughly eight to nine million barrels of oil per day are currently moving through Hormuz — significantly more than some commercial vessel-tracking estimates have indicated.
He explained that many vessels are moving under U.S. military escort with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders switched off, meaning commercial tracking services cannot reliably see every transit.
“We’re talking and coordinating with every ship,” Wright said, adding that the government receives daily information on vessels moving through the strait and what they are carrying.
Combined with roughly six million barrels per day being moved through alternative pipelines, Wright estimated that approximately 14 million to 15 million barrels are now leaving the Arabian Gulf region each day, compared with roughly 20 million before the conflict.
Tehran, however, is signaling that it may answer the mounting American pressure by escalating rather than yielding.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said Thursday that Khamenei’s “definitive strategy” would be to move Iran onto the offensive if Washington refuses Tehran’s sweeping conditions.
“The Supreme Leader’s definitive strategy of shifting the war to an offensive posture if Iran’s conditions are not met will undoubtedly transform the balance of power in the world,” Mokhber wrote on X.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters likewise rejected Washington’s claims of control over Hormuz as “lies and falsehoods,” insisting that the strait remains under Tehran’s “complete management and control.”
The Iranian command declared that “no commercial or oil tanker can transit this strait safely without the authorization and supervision of Iran’s powerful armed forces.”
Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran about the consequences of trying to challenge Washington’s position.
“We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now,” Trump said earlier this week. “They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it.”
He then made clear what he believes would follow another Iranian escalation.
“At some point, maybe they’ll do something, and then they get blown away.”
The confrontation is increasingly becoming a contest between two competing strategies: Washington is betting that Tehran cannot economically withstand an open-ended blockade combined with escalating financial isolation, while Iran is threatening to widen the conflict if the United States refuses its demands.
Bessent, meanwhile, made clear Thursday that Washington’s economic campaign is moving in only one direction.
“We went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury,” he said. “And at the president’s orders, we have raised the level even again.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.