Trump Announces ‘Substantial’ New Iran Sanctions Despite Having Already Sanctioned ‘Substantially’ Everything

Donald Trump on Wednesday morning decided to hit Iran with additional sanctions, despite having nothing else to sanction.

“I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!”, the president screamed.

In addition to crippling the country’s economy by implementing a de facto oil embargo, the Trump administration has sanctioned, among other entities and individuals, the IRGC, Iran’s space program, an individual oil tanker (and its captain), a shipping network, the foreign minister and, of course, Khamenei himself, with the latter decision being described by Hassan Rouhani as indicative of “mental retardation” on the part of the US president. (Putting sanctions on Khamenei is about like sanctioning the Easter Bunny – it sounds impressive, but it’s largely meaningless.)

Read more: Iran Calls Aramco Attacks ‘Warning’ From Houthis, Denies Role In ‘9/11 For Saudi Arabia’

It wasn’t immediately clear what or who Trump plans to sanction this time, but one assumes Steve Mnuchin is rushing to find targets on Wednesday morning.

The White House seems to be aware of the extent to which the effort to squeeze the theocracy has reached the point of diminishing returns.

In June, Trump told reporters that “it’s hard to believe” the US can sanction Iran further.

Iran has, at times, adopted a similarly incredulous tone. “Are there any other sanctions left for the US to impose?” a spokesman for the foreign ministry asked, half-jokingly, over the summer. “[Trump] knows full well that if pressure and sanctions were the answer, they would have yielded results much earlier”, the person added.

Although gold erased losses on Trump’s tweet, it’s at least possible that the new threat means the administration is still clinging to the idea that sanctions are preferable to military action when it comes to “changing Iran’s behavior” (as Mike Pompeo is fond of putting it).

That could, in theory anyway, mean Trump has decided against striking targets inside the country in retaliation for the attacks on Saudi oil facilities, but you never know. As the president himself would say, “We’ll see what happens”.

Meanwhile, Trump also announced he’s chosen Robert O’Brien – special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department – to replace John Bolton as national security advisor.