Scott Bessent may be the best Secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton. He is sharp, smart, quick-witted, and legacy media figures engage him in debate at their peril - and, generally, to their regret. Mr. Bessent has also been overseeing what he calls Operation Economic Fury, hitting Iran and the ruling mullahs in their bank accounts while Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is hitting them in the chops.
Now, it looks as though Mr. Bessent will be upping the economic game against Iran somewhat.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that the United States is going to apply measures that have "never been seen" on Iran.
"Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country," Bessent said in an interview on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" program.
"It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports," Bessent said.
Iran seems to be resisting our military actions. Could increased economic pressure bring the mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the table? Well, the economic pressure isn't exactly a new thing, and it has already yielded some results.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
โ M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) August 14, 2026
Treasury Secretary ๐๐๐จ๐ญ๐ญ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ญ told Newsmax Thursday the Iranian regime hasnโt seenโฆ pic.twitter.com/IIgK2uOYsa
This X post states in part:
Bessent laid out the timeline. President Trump ordered ๐ฆ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ on Tehran back in March 2025, and Treasury has spent the months since going after the regimeโs bank accounts, crypto wallets, and assets worldwide. It worked: Iranโs largest bank collapsed in December, forcing the central bank to print money and setting off runaway inflation. When the kinetic war ended after weeks of strikes earlier this year, Bessent said the U.S. simply shifted from โepic fury to economic furyโโand now Washington is raising the pressure again.
The current inflation rate in Iran is almost 88 percent. That's well into "disaster" territory. Iran's hard assets are being reduced by American explosives, and their fiat currency is becoming more and more valueless by the day. Oh, it's putting the squeeze on everyday Iranians, as well, and may well drive them to desperation; Bessent and President Trump are no doubt betting that this desperation will be aimed at the regime, not the United States, and indications so far would seem to support that view. It's a gamble, but not a bad gamble, and if Iran is to rise from this, it will have to be under a new government, chosen not by a bunch of 7th-century barbarians but by the Iranian people.
The elephant in the room, however, remains this: The people running Iran now cannot be trusted, and they never will be trustworthy. Not the civil government, not the IRGC, and (perhaps most of all) not the mullahs. They will lie when they agree to any deal. They will lie when they promise to abide by any deal. They will lie when the truth is to their advantage, and they will lie when the truth is the only thing that will save them.
The only way Iran will join the modern world is if and when the present regime is gone. Bankrupting them may well be a good first step towards that.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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