Donald Trump has ordered the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to increase pressure on Iran amid discussions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. The carrier and its supporting warships will take about three weeks to reach the region, where they will join the USS Abraham Lincoln, significantly boosting US military firepower.
The decision follows indirect negotiations between the US and Iran in Oman last week, with further talks expected but no date set. Trump said in an interview with Axios on Tuesday that he was “thinking” about sending a second carrier strike group, though he believed Tehran was willing to strike a nuclear deal. On Thursday, he warned Iran that failure to reach an agreement would be “very traumatic” and hoped talks would conclude within a month.
The USS Gerald R Ford had been deployed from the eastern Mediterranean in late October and arrived in the Caribbean in mid-November as Trump increased pressure on Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro. It played a central role in Maduro’s seizure by US forces in early January and had remained in the Caribbean since. The order to send it back to the Middle East extends an unusually long deployment that began in June 2025 with no set return date.
Iran has indicated willingness to curb its nuclear enrichment programme in exchange for sanctions relief but has rejected other demands. Israel, whose prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump in Washington on Wednesday, wants Iran to limit its ballistic missile programme and cut support for Hezbollah and other proxy groups. Trump’s rhetoric on Iran has shifted in recent weeks, from suggesting intervention during protests to focusing on nuclear curbs after a summer bombing campaign by Israeli and US forces.
On Friday, during a visit to Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen”, adding, “For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk.”
