Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Trump administration will announce a new round of measures against Iran next week as Washington combines intensified financial isolation, an open-ended naval blockade and continued military pressure in an effort to force Tehran toward a settlement.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration is preparing another major escalation of its campaign against Iran, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying new economic measures will be announced next week as the United States simultaneously maintains a naval blockade around Iranian ports and the Strait of Hormuz.
Bessent characterized the forthcoming actions as unprecedented in their scope and said President Donald Trump has directed Treasury to intensify a pressure campaign that has already targeted Iranian financial institutions, assets, cryptocurrency accounts and government revenue.
“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.”
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The strategy now being outlined by senior administration officials combines Treasury sanctions and financial restrictions with U.S. control over maritime access to Iranian ports, while preserving military force as an option if Tehran escalates.
Bessent described that combination as a “one-two punch.”
“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.
The Treasury secretary said the administration’s current campaign grew out of an earlier order from Trump shortly after his return to office.
“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 pursued Iranian “bank accounts, crypto wallets, assets around the world” and sought to sever financial flows to both the Iranian government and senior regime officials.
Bessent pointed to the collapse of a major Iranian bank late last year as evidence that the financial campaign was already damaging Tehran before the current war began.
According to Bessent, the bank’s failure forced Iran’s central bank to create additional money, contributing to surging inflation and further deterioration in the country’s economy.
The confrontation entered a new phase after military operations began in February.
Following weeks of U.S. strikes conducted as part of Operation Epic Fury, Bessent said Washington transitioned toward an intensified financial campaign.
“We went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury,” he said.
Trump has since directed Treasury to increase that pressure again.
“At the president’s orders, we have raised the level even again,” Bessent said.
His comments were also highlighted in a social media post.
The economic campaign is only one component of a broader strategy administration officials described Thursday.
Vice President JD Vance said the administration is using diplomatic, economic and military tools toward two principal objectives: preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and restoring conditions in the Strait of Hormuz that allow energy markets to stabilize.
“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 told Fox News host Will Cain.
Asked about what appeared to be shifting emphasis between negotiations, economic pressure and military threats, Vance argued that the changes reflect the range of tools available to Trump rather than a lack of direction.
“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 is employing those options “very selectively, very strategically,” he added, in pursuit of Trump’s desired outcome.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth separately made clear that Tehran should not expect the maritime pressure to expire.
“We can hold the blockade as long as we need to. Indefinitely,” Hegseth told reporters Thursday in Panama.
Hegseth said the Navy can sustain the operation by rotating vessels and personnel through the region rather than relying indefinitely on the same ships.
“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 said Iran cannot simply wait for the American operation to end.
“Iran knows it can’t get in and out on this blockade,” he said. “They know there’s no timeline on it either.”
Trump delivered a similar message Wednesday, declaring that U.S. forces had established control of Hormuz.
“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.
Administration officials are also arguing that the energy consequences of Iranian pressure on the strait are beginning to diminish.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday that Iran can still interfere with regional commerce but described Tehran’s strategy as increasingly ineffective.
“Iran is attempting to hold the world economy hostage and to terrorize their neighbors,” Wright told Fox News host Bret Baier.
Wright predicted that continued pressure would “lead to the collapse of this regime in Iran as their economy gets strangled.”
He said the balance of capabilities in and around Hormuz is moving steadily toward the United States and its partners.
“Their ability to cause difficulties are declining. Our ability to escort and bring products out of that region is growing,” Wright said. “They have sort of one card, and it’s shrinking in size.”
Wright said U.S. government information indicates approximately 8 million to 9 million barrels of oil per day are currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
That figure is higher than some estimates derived from commercial vessel-tracking services.
According to Wright, the discrepancy exists because many vessels transiting the waterway under U.S. military escort have switched off their Automatic Identification System transponders, preventing commercial tracking platforms from observing all of the traffic.
“We’re talking and coordinating with every ship,” Wright said.
He said U.S. officials receive daily information identifying the vessels transiting the strait and the cargo they are carrying.
His comments on oil movements and U.S. escort operations were also circulated online.
Wright estimated that another approximately 6 million barrels of oil per day are leaving the region through alternative pipelines.
Combined, he said, roughly 14 million to 15 million barrels are now moving out of the Arabian Gulf region daily, compared with approximately 20 million barrels per day before the war.
The administration’s position is that increasing the amount of energy that can safely leave the region will gradually reduce Iran’s ability to use disruption of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and the global economy.
Tehran, however, is threatening to answer the escalating American pressure with a more aggressive military posture.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said Thursday that Iran could move onto the offensive if the United States rejects Tehran’s 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 also rejected Trump’s assertion that the United States controls the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian command characterized Washington’s statements as “lies and falsehoods” and insisted that Hormuz remains under Tehran’s “complete management and control.”
The command further declared that “no commercial or oil tanker can transit this strait safely without the authorization and supervision of Iran’s powerful armed forces.”
That response was highlighted in a post from the Tehran Times.
Trump has issued his own warning about what would happen if Iran attempted a major escalation against U.S. forces or the American-controlled maritime operation.
“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 warned of a forceful response if Tehran acts.
“At some point, maybe they’ll do something, and then they get blown away.”
Trump’s remarks were shared in a separate social media post.
The increasingly explicit statements from both governments reveal competing calculations over which side can sustain the confrontation longer.
Washington is betting that Iran cannot indefinitely withstand a combination of restricted port access, pressure on its financial system, declining international commerce and the threat of additional military strikes.
Iran, meanwhile, is signaling that it may expand military operations rather than accept American demands.
For the Trump administration, the pressure campaign is also aimed at restoring more predictable energy flows through the Gulf while denying Tehran the ability to use access to Hormuz as a bargaining tool.
The details of the next financial measures have not yet been disclosed.
Bessent said those announcements will come next week, but made clear that Treasury’s objective is not to ease the existing campaign.
“We went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury,” Bessent said. “And at the president’s orders, we have raised the level even again.”
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