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U.S. President Donald Trump sharpened his rhetoric against Iran on Sunday, warning that the country's prolonged diplomatic maneuvering was coming to an end, even as Tehran submitted a fresh response to a U.S. peace proposal through a Pakistani intermediary.
"Iran has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years," Trump wrote in a social media post, adding that Iran "will be laughing no longer." It remained unclear whether the administration had reviewed Iran's latest submission at the time of the post, which made no direct reference to it.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz reinforced the administration's position earlier Sunday, telling Fox News Sunday that Washington had laid out a "very clear red line" in its proposal to Tehran. Trump, Waltz said, "has been clear they will never have a nuclear weapon and they cannot hold the world's economies hostage."
The remarks reflect longstanding U.S. policy that Iran must not be permitted to develop nuclear weapons, a position that has anchored American diplomacy toward Tehran across multiple administrations.
Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, though Western governments and international inspectors have raised concerns about the program's scope and intent.
The use of Pakistan as a go-between underscores the absence of direct diplomatic ties between Washington and Tehran, severed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and hostage crisis. Third-party mediators, including Oman and Qatar, have historically served as conduits between the two governments during periods of negotiation.
Whether Iran's latest response represents a substantive shift or a continuation of what Trump called deliberate delay tactics was not immediately known.
Separately, Trump used the same social media platform to promote a domestic manufacturing push, touting Executive Order 14392, which he said cracks down on fraudulent "Made in America" labeling and tightens restrictions on federal agencies purchasing foreign goods. The administration said it is closing waiver loopholes that previously allowed government procurement of non-American products even when domestic alternatives exist.
The dual messaging, combining foreign policy pressure with an economic nationalism pitch, reflects a pattern the Trump administration has maintained since returning to office: framing both international and domestic policy through an America First lens.
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