Trump Calls Secret Meeting as His War Crisis Spirals

President Donald Trump is heading into a high-stakes national security meeting Monday as efforts to force Iran to back down appear stuck in place, raising fresh questions about how long the dangerous Middle East standoff will drag on.

According to multiple reports, Trump is expected to gather top national security and foreign policy officials in the Situation Room to weigh the next move as negotiations remain frozen and pressure on Tehran continues to build.

The urgency comes after Iran reportedly floated a new proposal through Pakistani mediators that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and move toward ending the conflict, while pushing the explosive issue of its nuclear program off until later. That offer, however, reportedly still falls short of what the Trump administration is willing to accept, with U.S. officials making clear the White House is not about to settle for a weak deal that leaves America exposed.

Trump made it clear over the weekend that he has little patience left for diplomatic theater. He reportedly scrapped a planned trip that would have sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Pakistan, deciding there was no reason to waste time on a marathon flight for talks that looked doomed before they even began.

The president’s message was unmistakable: if Iran wants a deal, it can come to the table seriously and stop playing games.

That hard line reflects the broader strategy now driving the administration. Trump has leaned on a naval blockade of Iranian ports as part of a full-pressure campaign aimed at forcing Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. With shipping traffic still badly reduced and energy markets rattled, the White House appears convinced that squeezing Iran harder may be the only language the regime understands.

Behind the scenes, officials reportedly believe the blockade may be having an impact, even as optimism about a clean diplomatic breakthrough continues to fade. One major sticking point is Iran’s insistence that nuclear negotiations should come later, only after the strait is reopened and pressure is lifted. For Trump, that is a nonstarter. He has repeatedly argued that the conflict was about stopping Iran from ever becoming a nuclear power, and the administration has shown little appetite for any agreement that kicks that problem down the road.

The White House is also staying disciplined in public. Spokesperson Olivia Wales told Axios that these are sensitive negotiations and stressed that the United States will only accept a deal that puts the American people first and never allows Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. That framing fits neatly with Trump’s broader message to voters: America will not be pushed around, and any final agreement must be made from a position of strength, not desperation.

For now, all eyes are on Monday’s Situation Room meeting. With Iran testing limits, global oil flows still under strain, and the administration refusing to blink, Trump is once again facing a defining foreign policy moment. And this time, the White House seems determined to show that backing down is not an option.