It’s a stretch to call this a war foretold. But the US president’s playbook on Iran has long been in plain sight. From oil threats to ultimatums, he has a decades-old view of how to confront Tehran.
Alex Barker
Updated
An ultimatum to the Ayatollah: comply within days or face consequences. A threat to seize Iran’s most important oil facilities. A readiness to retaliate massively. And, running through it all, a conviction that one decisive blow will force Tehran to yield.
These might sound like the operating assumptions of Donald Trump’s 2026 war on Iran or the US president’s most recent Truth Social posts. They aren’t. They come from the late 1980s and Trump’s first shortlived flirtation with a White House campaign.