President Donald Trump speaks to the media near the construction site of his White House ballroom in Washington, May 19, 2026.
Kent Nishimura Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said he had “an hour” to decide whether to attack Iran on Tuesday before he decided to postpone the strike for several days.
“We were all going to go … it was going to happen now,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at the White House when asked how close he was to ordering the strike, which would have formally ended the shaky US-Iran standoff that remains in place.
Trump said in a statement sent by Truth Social on Monday afternoon that he was delaying the unannounced strike that had been planned for Tuesday because several Middle Eastern leaders had asked him to “stop” because of ongoing negotiations with Iran.
There was no clear indication before Trump’s post that the US was preparing to strike Iran on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reported that Gulf officials from other countries Trump said were unaware of the impending plan to attack Iran.
Trump himself said later in Tuesday’s remarks, “I didn’t tell them.”
“I never told anyone when, but they knew we were very close,” he said. “I would say we were there, it was an hour before I decided to leave today.”
And he said, “I had made a decision. So they called, they had heard that I had made a decision, and they said, ‘Sir, can you give us a few more days? Because we think they are reasonable.’
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was in Kentucky campaigning for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on Monday.
Asked how long Iran should come to the table, Trump said it could be two or three days, or maybe until Sunday or early next week. “It is a limited time, because we will not allow them to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
The war has appeared stuck in a stalemate for weeks, as a ceasefire remains in effect but both sides continue to vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil shipping route.
Trump has repeatedly threatened further military action against Iran, in order to delay his self-imposed deadline.
The war, which began on February 28 and has dragged on longer than the initial four-to-six-week timeline of the Trump administration, is viewed negatively by a growing majority of Americans, according to recent polls.
A New York Times-Siena poll released Monday found 31% of registered American voters approve of Trump’s handling of the Iran war while 65% disapprove, with the majority saying they “strongly disagree.”
Trump said on Tuesday that he believes that people who understand the administration’s intentions support the operation.
“Everybody tells me it’s not popular, but I think it’s more popular when they hear it’s related to nuclear weapons, weapons that can take out Los Angeles, they can take over big cities,” he said.
“When we explain it to people – I don’t really have enough time to explain it to people, I’m too busy to get it done. If they understand, I think it’s very popular,” he said. “But whether it’s popular or not, I have to do it.”
