The United States and Iran have been at war for about six months, and President Donald Trump keeps switching between threatening to bomb Iran and saying peace talks are coming. On Sunday, August 2, 2026, after reportedly threatening a 'massive attack' on Iran, Trump said talks would happen the next day with Iranian representatives. Trump also said he was told there could be a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to the New York Times.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow strip of water between Iran and Oman. A huge amount of the world's oil passes through it every day. Whoever controls it has a major impact on global fuel prices.

This back-and-forth is not new. On April 7, Trump warned that 'a whole civilisation will die tonight,' then announced a ceasefire shortly after. A ceasefire is when both sides agree to stop fighting temporarily, usually so they can try to work things out through talking. Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire and said it would negotiate with the US in Islamabad starting that Friday, the AP reported. By late July, Trump was again saying the US was having 'good talks' with Iran and that a deal was possible, Reuters reported on July 27. On July 6, he framed the situation as a simple choice: either reach a deal or 'finish the job.'

But Iran's side of the story is confusing. Iran denied it was negotiating with the US after Trump said he had called off strikes, CNN reported on August 2. France 24 reported that Iran called Trump's bluff, denying talks even as Trump announced new ones would start August 3. However, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz were nearly finished with Oman's help, Al Jazeera reported.

The conflict ramped up in early 2026. On February 7, Trump issued an executive order, which is a presidential command that carries the force of law, titled 'Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Iran.' On March 1, the White House announced that Trump launched 'Operation Epic Fury,' a military campaign aimed at crushing Iran's government and ending its nuclear threat. The State Department later published a legal defense in April, stating that after earlier strikes in June 2025, both sides had observed a ceasefire to allow for diplomatic negotiations about Iran's activities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has backed the administration's approach. On July 19, Rubio said Iran is attacking shipping and the US is striking back against Iranian assets used to target global commercial shipping. On July 23, Rubio said every time Iran makes a deal, the people in charge there trust the negotiations. In a Fox News interview published July 28, Rubio said Iran's leaders have never faced a president like Trump, calling him someone who 'actually takes action.'

The economic situation inside Iran is dire. The rial, which is Iran's money, was trading at about 1.91 million to one US dollar on August 3, near its lowest ever, Al Jazeera reported. The currency had improved to about 1.54 million per dollar in mid-June 2026, when a now-suspended deal between Iran and the US was in play. Trump has openly celebrated the decline, posting a chart on social media saying he was 'destroying Iran's currency' and pointing to 'massive inflation.' Iran's own Statistical Center reported inflation at nearly 90 percent for the month ending July 22, 2026, compared with the same month a year earlier.

The bigger picture here is a contradiction between what the Trump administration says about diplomacy and what it does. In October 2025, Trump issued 'The Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity,' promising to resolve future disputes through talking rather than force. Yet the months that followed brought Operation Epic Fury, a full-scale military campaign. The administration's own legal documents describe a cycle: military strikes, then ceasefires, then failed talks, then more strikes. Going from the June 2025 ceasefire, to the February 2026 executive order, to the March launch of Operation Epic Fury suggests a pattern where military force is used as pressure to get a deal, not as an abandonment of diplomacy.

The order in which any deal might happen is complicated. According to Reuters, talks over Iran's nuclear program, which Trump said was the reason for starting the war, would only happen after a peace deal. AP reported a pause in fighting in early August, with Trump both threatening more strikes and dismissing worries about rising gas prices. In an April 2026 CNBC interview, Trump was more optimistic, saying of Iran, 'What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal.'

What this means for the wider region is still uncertain. The Strait of Hormuz remains the key flashpoint. Rubio says US strikes are about protecting global shipping, while Iran says it controls the strait and is negotiating separately with Oman. The collapse of Iran's currency, which Trump has publicly cheered, raises a question: does crushing Iran's economy push it toward peace talks, or just make the crisis worse? With inflation near 90 percent and the currency at record lows, any deal would need to give Washington what it wants on security while giving Iran enough economic relief to claim a win at home.

For now, the contradictions define the moment. Talks are announced, denied, threatened, and re-announced within days. A war started to end a nuclear threat may, according to US framing, end before nuclear negotiations even begin. And a declaration for enduring peace sits alongside a military operation called Epic Fury, both from the same president.