While President Donald Trump snuggled with his main advisors in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday, US officials indicated that the next 24 to 48 hours would be criticism to determine whether a diplomatic solution with Iran is possible, or if the president could resort to military action.
Trump significantly increased his rhetoric against the Iranian regime before the meeting, stating that the United States knew exactly where Ayatolá Ali Khamenei was.
“It is an easy goal, but it is safe there: we are not going to get it (kill!), At least not for now. But we do not want the missiles to trigger civilians or US soldiers. Our patience is running out,” Trump wrote on social networks.
“Now we have total and total control of the heavens over Iran,” he said in another publication.
President Donald Trump leaves after a family photo during the summit of the seven group in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025.
Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/EPA-EFE/ShuttersTock
One last chance for diplomacy?
Despite the apparent saber trache, American negotiators continued to evaluate on Tuesday that Iran is in a weak position and could be forced to return to the negotiating table and, ultimately, accept an agreement that would require that he abandon all nuclear enrichment, according to multiple officials involved in the diplomatic process.
As the Iran and Israel trade blows, the Iranian regime has indicated the will to resume discussions with the United States, officials said, adding that the Trump administration has been looking for more concrete commitments before supporting the war path.
If they will return to the negotiations and accept to abandon their enrichment of uranium, US officials believe that a high -level meeting led by the special envoy Steve Witkoff and potentially vice president JD Vance would happen as soon as this week.
But that scenario probably requires that Iran move quickly. The president has already recognized that his patience with the situation in the Middle East becomes thin.
The familiar sources with the president’s mentality said that it has been frustrated by a destabilized inability of Iran to provide the administration with immediate responses and also seems very discredited to allow a situation to develop where Tehran has successfully called its military lantern.
Aviators look at a GBU-57, or the massive artillery penetrator pump, at the Whiteman air base in Missouri on May 2, 2023.
US Air Force through AP, file
An ‘defensive’ American position, for now
The US army is already sending assets to the region, including the sending of additional airplanes and a second aircraft carrier and their attack group in the Middle East, all movements that are of a defensive nature, authorities say.
“We are strong, we are prepared, we are on the defensive and present,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the United States position in the Middle East during an interview with Fox News on Monday.
But while the repositioning of the assets is intended to protect at 40,000 estimated American troops parked in the region, it also leaves the options open for the Trump administration if it decides to directly help with the ongoing offensive operation of Israel against Iran.
“Our role is to keep the options on the table, but our position is still on the defensive,” said an American official.
A B-2 spirit returns to the base of the Whiteman Air Force, Missouri, from a deployment to Diego García, British Indian Ocean territory, May 9, 2025.
Airman Senior Devan Halstead/509th Bomb Ala/US Air Force
An important question is whether the United States will implement its B-2 stealth bombers. The heavy strategic bombers are capable of transporting the bunker-buter-buster pumps of massive tram of 30,000 pounds, which could destroy the deep underground nuclear installation of Iran in the Fuel Fuel Enrichment Plant.
Currently, the military fleet of 19 B-2 bombers is at the base of the Whiteman Air Force in Missouri. Six of the airplanes were previously deployed in the air base on the island of Diego García in the Indian Ocean, much closer to Iran. However, they were replaced by B-52 long-range bombers that are not able to transport the bunker-buuster pumps necessary to destroy the fordo site.
Already, approximately a dozen US vessels. Among them are a coastal combat ship, four businesses and six trades of the water patrol, said the official.
The Navy also has two destroyers in the Red Sea, an aircraft carrier and three other surface ships in the Arabic sea. Two more American destroyers are found in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, each equipped with antimile defense systems capable of demolishing Iranian ballistic missiles.
A United States agenda changing
The signs that the Trump administration could be advancing towards military action could include canceling the president’s plans to travel to the Netherlands for a NATO summit next week.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the state department spokesman Tammy Bruce said the summit was still “in the books”, but said that the situation could change depending on the dynamics with Iran.
“This is something that moves, as they tend to things, very quickly. So, I would say that anything is possible,” he said.
The president already made an early exit from the G7 summit in Canada, choosing to shorten his time there on Monday to monitor the situation in the Middle East from the White House.
