President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the U.S. ceasefire with Iran is over and warned that more American military action could be on the way after the two sides exchanged attacks overnight.
Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump signaled he no longer believed the truce remained in effect.
“I think it’s over,” Trump said when asked whether the ceasefire was still holding.
“I don’t want to deal with them anymore … as far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” he added.
Trump also dismissed the prospect of renewed diplomacy, saying U.S. officials had sought a peace agreement but that he now viewed negotiations with Tehran as “a waste of time dealing with.”
Later Wednesday, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump suggested the U.S. could launch another round of strikes against Iran as soon as Wednesday night.
“I’ll give him a little warning. We’re going to hit them hard tonight, but we’ll see how it all works out,” Trump said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who attended the meeting, echoed the president’s remarks.
“Tonight, if we need to, on your order, Mr. President, we will hit even more and even deeper” into Iran, Hegseth said.
Trump also said the administration is considering restoring a naval blockade targeting Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil shipping lanes.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says the US will be hitting Iran “HARD” tonight
Looks like he wasn’t kidding about that ceasefire ending.
“I’ll give them a little warning: we’re going to hit them HARD tonight.” pic.twitter.com/72L5qUU283
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 8, 2026
“We may put it back, the blockade, and it’ll only be a blockade for Iran,” Trump said.
The comments came just hours after Washington and Tehran accused each other of violating the ceasefire reached last month.
The U.S. military launched what officials described as a “series of powerful strikes” against Iranian targets after three commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz came under attack Tuesday.
The Treasury Department also revoked a waiver that had allowed Iran to continue selling oil.
In a post Tuesday on X, U.S. Central Command said American forces struck more than 80 targets, including air defense systems, command-and-control networks and anti-ship missile capabilities.
The military said it also hit more than 60 Revolutionary Guard small boats to reduce Iran’s ability to target international shipping.
In an earlier statement, CENTCOM said the strikes were carried out “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”
“The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes Wednesday, calling them a “gross violation of the Memorandum of Understanding” the two countries reached last month to end the conflict.
“The powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as they have repeatedly shown, will not hesitate to defend Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and national security against American military aggression,” the ministry said, according to a Google translation.
The latest escalation follows similar clashes last month after Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global oil shipments.
Disruptions to traffic through the waterway previously sent oil prices soaring and raised fears of a broader energy shock that could fuel inflation worldwide.
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