BREAKING🚨 Trump says Iran has “no choice” but to take his deal — and he still doesn’t want to extend the ceasefire that expires tomorrow.

BREAKING🚨 Trump says Iran has “no choice” but to take his deal and he still doesn’t want to extend the ceasefire that expires tomorrow.

In a new interview on CNBC, the president was asked point-blank what he thinks will happen as the two-week truce in the Iran war runs out. “I think we’re going to end up with a great deal,” he said. 

When pressed on why, he added, “I think they have no choice.” Then he made clear he doesn’t want to give negotiators more time by prolonging the ceasefire. When the anchor suggested extending it to help peace talks, Trump replied, “Well I don’t want to do that.”

It’s the same split-screen message he’s been sending for days: telling investors and TV audiences that peace is close, while telling Iran and his own base that he’s ready to restart the war at full force.

The stakes could not be higher. The temporary ceasefire — which halted U.S. airstrikes on Iran and paused most Iranian attacks on U.S. partners in the Gulf — is set to expire Wednesday evening Washington time. 

Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s son‑in‑law Jared Kushner, and envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to fly to Pakistan for another round of talks in Islamabad. Iran, for its part, is publicly refusing to say whether it will even send a delegation.

Tehran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran “will not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats.” Iranian officials are signaling that they might restart talks — but they are also telling their hardliners and the public that they won’t be bullied into signing an American‑drafted document on Trump’s timetable.

Trump, meanwhile, is still swinging between victory lap and ultimatum.

Over the weekend, he told one interviewer Iran had “agreed to everything,” including working with the U.S. to remove its stockpile of enriched uranium, and claimed the war was “very close to being over.” 

Within 48 hours, he was back on conservative radio warning that if Iran doesn’t sign his deal, the “whole country is getting blown up,” including power plants and bridges. On CBS and NBC live blogs, aides describe him as convinced that time is on his side, writing on Truth Social that “time is not my adversary” and insisting he has “all the time in the world” to squeeze Iran.

For ordinary Iranians and Americans, time is not abstract. Each extra day without a real agreement means:

- A U.S. naval blockade still choking the Strait of Hormuz and keeping tankers stacked up.

- Fuel and shipping prices rattling global markets.

- Families on both sides wondering if the relative quiet of the last two weeks is about to end in another round of explosions.

The core sticking point hasn’t changed: what happens to Iran’s nuclear program.

During earlier talks in Islamabad, U.S. negotiators demanded a 20‑year halt to uranium enrichment. Iran countered with an offer to suspend enrichment for three to five years. Trump has called that unacceptable. At the same time, he keeps bragging about “Midnight Hammer,” last year’s joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling it a “complete obliteration” — even though U.S. intelligence assessments leaked to NBC say only one of three major sites was fully destroyed.

In other words, he’s telling the public the nuclear threat is gone while telling Iran he needs a longer freeze because it isn’t.

The CNBC interview also had a domestic audience: Wall Street.

Trump has been hammered in recent polls over inflation and the war. Investors are jittery about what a full-scale return to bombing would do to oil prices and supply chains. On air, he tried to calm markets by insisting that his hard line is what will produce a deal. “We’ve been very strong,” he said, suggesting that Iran’s economy is too battered to hold out. He cast Democrats and critics as the real obstacle, accusing them of “doing everything possible to hurt the very strong position we are in with respect to Iran.”

The reality on the ground is messier. Iran’s leadership has to manage its own hardliners, who feel emboldened by having survived a year of conflict and see any concession as surrender. Trump has to manage a base that loved his 2016 promise to end “endless wars” and is now watching him threaten one of the largest bombing campaigns in modern history if he doesn’t get the deal he wants.

You can feel that tension in how he talks.

On CNBC, he spoke the language of inevitability: great deal, no choice, war nearly over. On other platforms in the last 48 hours, he’s used the language of brinkmanship: Iran “violated the ceasefire numerous times,” “we’ll have to start dropping bombs again,” “problems like they’ve never seen before.” He’s trying to be the dealmaker and the tough guy at the same time — the man who can claim credit if peace holds, and who can say he was “forced” to act if it collapses.

For now, none of that changes the calendar.

The truce clock is still ticking down to Wednesday night. Planes are being prepped on U.S. carriers. Delegation bags are being packed in Washington. 

Iranian officials are arguing behind closed doors over whether to be seen shaking hands in Islamabad when the same man opposite them keeps talking about “blowing up” their infrastructure on American radio.

Trump told CNBC this morning that Iran has no choice. In the next 36 hours, the world will find out how willing he is to bet lives — and global stability — on that assumption.

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