‘No more Mr Nice Guy’: Trump warns Iran to ‘get smart’ over stalled talks

The US president has railed against Iran’s proposal on Truth Social as uncertainty over the fragile ceasefire grows.United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran must “get smart soon” following a proposal from Iran that would postpone a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme.“Iran can’t get their act together,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. “They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Iran war: What’s happening on day 61 as UAE exits OPEC?list 2 of 4‘Particularly badly exposed’: How the Iran war is hitting the UKlist 3 of 4Is India’s Chabahar dream in Iran dead?list 4 of 4Life in limbo: How Iranians navigate a state of ‘no war, no peace’end of listThe president included an AI-generated photo of himself carrying an assault rifle, with bombs exploding on a mountainside behind him. A banner over the image read: “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”The latest threats came as uncertainty surrounding the fragile US-Iran ceasefire grows, days after the president called off the latest round of talks with Tehran.Although Washington said it was reviewing Tehran’s proposal, it reportedly received a lukewarm response, with the White House emphasising Trump would “not be rushed into making a bad deal” and that “Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon”.‘Intense competition’Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that “we’ve gone past the stage … for a physical war”, but that both Tehran and Trump were in a stage of “intense competition”.“Both sides are basically trying to signal to the other that they have more resilience, that time is on their side,” Pinfold said.Tehran’s proposal is “deferring all of the difficult issues until later” by prioritising the end of the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.“[But the tactic] simply doesn’t work for the Americans because they feel like if they give up on basically the leverage they have – the physical force leverage – the war could resume,” Pinfold added.Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, April 29, 2026 [Reuters]Meanwhile, Washington has claimed to have imposed additional financial pressure on Tehran.