Trump wants 'unconditional surrender,' won't seek Iran deal

Iain Marlow and Patrick Sykes, Bloomberg News on Mar 6, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President Donald Trump said he doesn’t want to negotiate an end to the war with Iran in a post on social media that demanded Tehran capitulate as U.S. and Israeli airstrikes continue.

“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that the U.S. and its allies would select a “GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s).”

The president’s remarks are a signal that the White House may be girding for an extended conflict after U.S. officials had insisted their goal was not regime change. Trump in the early days of the conflict had instead indicated a willingness to still broker a deal. The war has left at least 1,332 people dead in Iran so far, and dozens of others have been killed elsewhere in the region in retaliatory strikes. Six U.S. troops have been killed, all in the first two days of fighting.

Iran is poised to elect a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Feb. 28, the first day of the conflict, and Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain leader’s second-oldest son, is in the running. Trump has dismissed him as a “lightweight” who wouldn’t change the regime’s policies and insisted on being personally involved in picking the country’s next leader.

In an interview Thursday with NBC News, Trump indicated he wanted the Iranian leadership structure removed entirely.

“We want to go in and clean out everything,” Trump said. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.”

Israel, which has joined the U.S. in the campaign against Iran, said Thursday it was beginning its next phase of the campaign, planning to intensify strikes against the regime’s military capabilities. Iran fired a barrage of missiles and drones targeting a number of Gulf countries overnight.

Earlier this week, Iran denied a report that its Ministry of Intelligence reached out to the U.S. to negotiate an end to the Middle East war, following a New York Times report that operatives had indirectly contacted the Central Intelligence Agency in a bid to broker a halt to the fighting.

The report was “pure falsehood and psychological warfare,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing a ministry source.

The conflict has pushed Brent crude futures to their highest levels in almost two years and routed bonds across the globe amid concerns that climbing energy prices will force central banks to slow their pace of rate cuts. The dollar is rising the most on a weekly basis since 2024.