Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Tuesday said President Trump will have to resume a full war with Iran days after the initial failed ceasefire deal expired. Asked if the president should follow through on his threat last month to “bomb and destroy” at least “ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT” near Tehran if the Iranian regime fired at U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Scott answered in the affirmative. “I think he’s going to have to,” the Florida Republican told NewsNation’s Blake Burman in an appearance on “The Hill.”
“I mean, here’s a president that doesn’t like war. None of us do. Here’s a president that doesn’t want to put troops in harm’s way. None of us do,” Scott continued. “And so, he’s given diplomacy a chance. Iran has walked away from it.” He added that, “at some point, he will not have a choice but to do more to destroy their ability to produce weapons. But they are not going to have a useful weapon while President Trump’s president.” The senator noted that Trump “has a lot better information than I do” when it comes to his next actions on Iran, but he said the president will “do everything he can with diplomacy.” He suggested the Pentagon will act in the next “30 days or so.”
“But do I believe this regime is going to change?” he added. “No, I don’t.” Trump has attempted to wage economic warfare on Iran with sanctions and the return of a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which roughly 30 percent of the world’s oil and gas is exported, while Iran has it effectively shut down for commercial vessels. The president threatend Oman as it has negotiated with Iran to develop a deal to set up new shipping lanes in the strait. Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said Monday that “an understanding” had been reached. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump told Fox News’s Trey Yingst earlier this week. The journalist did not provide audio of the conversation.
Iranian officials have insisted that the strait will reopen once Trump withdraws the naval blockade, compensates Iran for damages from the war, unfreezes assets and lifts sanctions. The Islamic Republic also chided the president over his proposal to make the strait U.S. territory. Trump also told Yingst that he has “no time schedule” to make a new deal with Iran. Both countries previously agreed to an interim deal in June, which expired Monday.
On Tuesday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of being “way out of their league” in trying to bring Tehran back to the table for peace negotiations. Hegseth has said little about the conflict in recent weeks, while Bessent last week hinted at new sanctions on Iran that have “never been seen.” “Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement,” Qalibaf wrote on the social platform X.
