On Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran once again rejected talks with the United States over their nuclear program, and U.S. President Donald Trump was not pleased. “If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," he threatened.

The consequences will be serious if they don’t come to the negotiating table, he told NBC News:

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."

"There's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago," he added.

This isn’t the first time he’s taken a tough approach toward the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism; he warned the mullahs on Friday from the Oval Office that they would be wise to take his demands seriously:

“Bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran!”

President @realDonaldTrump on his letter to the Islamofascist regime and what happens if they make the wrong decision. pic.twitter.com/xq5cOoVBTf

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) March 30, 2025

Iran’s leaders apparently haven’t gotten the message, however:

Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran's foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the policy on Sunday. "Direct negotiations (with the U.S.) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue," he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Read Related: Mike Waltz Throws Down the Gauntlet on Iran's Nuclear Program, Threatens 'Consequences'

Iranian General Talks a Big Game - But Iran Can't Back That Up

Trump is mulling other measures besides bombing. Although he had placed heavy tariffs on the radical country during his first presidency, Joe Biden inexplicably went soft on the extremist regime, and they responded as you would expect them to: by ramping up their efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Trump wants to use the power of the purse again:

In the NBC interview, Trump also threatened so-called secondary tariffs, which affect buyers of a country's goods, on both Russia and Iran. He signed an executive order last week authorizing such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.

Trump did not elaborate on those potential tariffs.

In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran's disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump also reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions. Since then, the Islamic Republic has far surpassed the agreed limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.

See Also: 'Very Angry' Trump Goes Off on Putin Over Ukraine in NBC Interview—in No Uncertain (Salty) Terms 

Iran continues to be one of the world’s worst actors, and Biden’s appeasement of the despotic regime has proven to be very dangerous indeed. Trump is right to recognize the danger, but it’s not going to be easy to put a stop to their antics. Strangling their economy might be the best place to start—unless, of course, we unleash “bombing like you’ve never seen before.” 

It just may come to that.