President Trump delivered one of his starkest warnings yet on Iran during a call with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, floating total destruction of the country as one option still on the table nearly seven months into the war. "My question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up?" Trump said, adding bluntly, "They better behave." Yingst, reporting live from Tel Aviv, said the president described himself as being in "deciding mode," weighing a choice between "wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal," and warned that "very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future."

Despite the escalatory rhetoric, Trump left the door open to diplomacy, telling Yingst he would "probably be open" to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of this week's UN General Assembly in New York, where Iran's core delegation is expected to attend. The comments echo remarks Trump made just days earlier to Axios, where he similarly weighed whether to "go in and annihilate them or do I not." The mixed signals come as Trump's handling of the war draws increasingly shaky public support, with a recent Fox News poll finding 71 percent of Americans believe he lacks a clear plan to end the conflict and six in ten voters now calling the war the wrong decision in hindsight. Whether the coming days bring a breakthrough at the UN or a dramatic escalation, Trump made clear the decision, in his words, rests entirely with him.