President Donald Trump has warned that the United States may have to destroy the rest of Iran, saying reconstruction would take a generation and that the public will know soon enough if he acts.

The remark, reported overnight in live coverage of the conflict, sharpens the choice facing Washington after midterm losses that many Republicans themselves tie to the war. Trump has already said the fighting ends when he decides, while still insisting he does not regret the joint campaign with Israel that began in late February. His latest wording goes further: it frames a possible widening of force against Iranian territory, not only a return to the tempo of earlier strikes.

Diplomacy has not gone quiet. Public accounts say Iran has sent a nuclear proposal through Qatari mediators for Washington to study, even as Tehran waits on a set of demands it first laid out in condensed form this autumn. Officials have described concrete nuclear ideas under review, yet no verified text of enrichment limits, sanctions relief or inspection steps has been released. That gap leaves markets and allies guessing whether a bargain or a new escalation comes first.

The warning also lands against a hard commercial backdrop. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains tightly constrained, tanker incidents continue to feed insurance nerves, and fuel prices at home were cited by Trump himself as a reason some voters walked away. Destroy rhetoric raises the political cost of another round even as it signals resolve to audiences who want the war finished on American terms.

For now the public facts are limited but stark. The president has floated destroying what is left of Iran, tied any move to a 25 year rebuild, and left the timing opaque. Whether the next step is a deal on Qatar's channel or a fresh military order remains the central unanswered question of the week.