Photo: The White House, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
The United States has no immediate plan to strike Iran, President Donald Trump told the Financial Times in a telephone interview on Tuesday, playing down speculation that he would escalate the war after the midterm elections — while warning that American forces remain ready to act if necessary.
"We seem to be getting everything we want," Trump said in the six-minute interview, hours before polls closed in the U.S. midterm elections, according to Reuters' account of the conversation.
"Locked and loaded if we need to go"
Asked about hints by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an attack might come later this week, Trump said American forces were prepared but suggested further military action might not be needed.
"I'm ready, we're ready. We're locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it," he told the FT.
Trump also told the paper that indirect negotiations with Tehran were continuing, including discussions over Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium. He declined to disclose any potential military plans.
A shift from the pre-election warnings
The remarks mark a softer tone than Trump's warnings in recent weeks, when he had repeatedly left open the possibility of renewed strikes after the November 3 vote. On Monday he had already raised doubts about following through, telling reporters he was not considering striking Iran after the midterms and saying he believed Iran wanted a deal.
His comments came a day after U.S. forces carried out strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, an operation Trump confirmed on Tuesday, describing it as a limited strike on an anti-aircraft facility. Iranian negotiators were in Doha on Sunday for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators, though a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday that the two sides remain far from a deal to end the war.
"Not really in a war"
Trump told the FT that the United States is "not really in a war" with Iran, pointing to the B-2 bomber strikes that he said wiped out Iran's nuclear potential, followed by later operations. "If you think about it, we haven't really had a war with them in a long time, six months, maybe more," he said.
That framing sits uneasily with the reality in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has come under repeated attack and three tankers were reported struck by mines on Tuesday. But for now, the president's message to the FT was one of satisfaction with Washington's position — and of a military option held in reserve rather than imminent.
Whether the pause holds will depend on the talks in Doha and on Netanyahu's next moves. Trump said only that discussions would continue: "We're having discussions, and we'll see how that all works out."
Sources: Reuters, "US has no immediate plan to strike Iran, Trump tells FT," November 3, 2026; Financial Times interview as reported by Reuters, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post and TRT World, November 3-4, 2026.