The Trump administration’s much-touted economic offensive against Iran has come under fierce criticism after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stopped short of announcing measures targeting China, despite Beijing’s deep economic relationship with Tehran. Strategic studies professor Phillips O’Brien described the outcome as “a total fold by the USA”, arguing Washington had backed away from the confrontation needed to make its pressure campaign bite. The sanctions threat meets a hard limit Bessent had been expected to outline the economic measures behind President Donald Trump’s “Economic D-Day” approach to Iran. Instead, his remarks offered few concrete details about who would face sanctions, while he warned that Washington would seek to “sever every economic lifeline” available to Tehran. The problem is China. Beijing is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, meaning any serious attempt to cripple Iran’s economy risks provoking a confrontation with one of America’s most important global rivals. Bessent acknowledged the dilemma, saying: “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” O’Brien delivers a brutal verdict Before the announcement, O’Brien had warned that Washington would have to target China if it genuinely intended to impose crippling sanctions on Iran. When that did not happen, he compared the outcome to the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, where US forces suffered a decisive defeat. “A total fold by the USA,” he declared afterwards, calling it a “sanction Little Bighorn”. The criticism goes beyond one Treasury briefing. O’Brien argues that Trump’s Iran strategy has exposed wider limits to American power, after the president reportedly expected the conflict to produce a rapid collapse of Iran’s leadership. The pressure now shifts to Beijing The administration is caught between its promise to impose maximum economic pressure and the consequences of enforcing it against Chinese buyers. Trump’s wider foreign policy is also under scrutiny, with critics arguing that prolonged conflict has strained US military resources and created opportunities for China elsewhere. For now, Washington is threatening economic escalation while avoiding the step that could make the campaign genuinely disruptive: taking on China itself. The humiliating depth of Trump's surrender was just revealed: analysis
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