Speaking Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed up Trump’s ultimatum that Iran open the Strait or Hormuz or the US will bomb its power plants. Bessent said Trump can “wind this conflict down whenever he wants,” but that this threat is necessary because it’s “the only language the Iranians understand.”
In describing the alleged Trump strategy in Iran, Bessent said: “There has been a campaign to use military assets to soften up the Iranian fortifications along the Strait that’s going to continue until they are completely demolished,” Bessent said. “Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”
