After G7 Leaders Praise US-Iran Deal, Trump Threatens Iran Again

President Donald Trump oscillated Wednesday between praising the preliminary agreement with Iran as a “very strong deal” and threatening to resume bombing if he was unhappy with its implementation, hours after world leaders at the annual Group of 7 summit hailed it as a “breakthrough.”

In remarks to reporters as he sat alongside President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt during the summit, Trump cast investors’ reaction as evidence of the deal’s success, then pivoted to escalatory language. “If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head,” he said.

Trump, who has been fixated on proving that former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran deal was weaker than the one he is negotiating, became angry and used a denigrating term to characterize Iranian attitudes toward his predecessor. “They laughed at Obama, and they said he’s a stupid son of a bitch,” he said.

Hours earlier, the G7 leaders issued a joint statement praising Trump’s leadership in securing the deal with Iran, as they gathered for the second full day of the summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, a resort town on the shores of Lake Geneva.

The statement, an unexpectedly firm declaration of agreement among many of the world’s leading powers, said that the preliminary deal — the terms of which have not been released — between the U.S. and Iran provided a “historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon.” But amid uncertainty about what the deal entails, the leaders also noted that there must be “a robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement” to the memorandum that top officials from the U.S. and Iran are expected to sign in Switzerland on Friday.

In his remarks later, Trump sought to cast the preliminary deal in glowing terms, even as he acknowledged that its details have not been made public. “Nobody knows what it is, but it’s very strong,” he said. “Most people seem to be very happy.” He pointed to investor sentiment as a crucial barometer: “Who’s really happy is the market.”

With its combination of caution and flattery directed toward the American president, the statement from G7 leaders captured the tone of this week’s summit on its final day. The gathering has been surprising so far for its cordiality, even as leaders tackle weighty and often contentious subjects.

Trump has struck a friendly tone toward European leaders whom he has a history of mocking and criticizing, even praising President Emmanuel Macron of France and speaking enthusiastically about a dinner they are set to have Wednesday night at the Palace of Versailles, the lavish estate of French royalty. They, in turn, have showered him with compliments and even gifts.

Yet the discussions have still been tense. The leaders from some of the world’s richest countries were discussing Wednesday the global economy — a topic that is likely to include discussion of China — and the contentious question of how to regulate artificial intelligence.

Here’s What Else We’re Covering:

— Support for Ukraine: Trump switched between apparent interest and indifference regarding the war, which is now in its fifth year. He said he’d had “very good talks” with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, a day after suggesting that the U.S. had “nothing to do” with the war.

— AI regulation: The leaders had lunch Wednesday with executives from some of the world’s most influential technology companies, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, as they wrestle with how to regulate artificial intelligence.

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Hot mics:

Small talk between mingling leaders has been picked up on hot mics, recording snippets of conversations that ranged from geopolitics and trade to the leaders’ personal lives.

— Diplomatic strategies: European leaders appear to have concluded that the best way to deal with Trump is to court him. After a year dominated by rancor and the occasional sharp elbow, many turned at this week’s summit to conciliatory words and charm.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Leo Sands, Erica L. Green, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Jeanna Smialek/Haiyun Jiang
c. 2026 The New York Times Company

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