The U.S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops to the Middle East aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the Makin Island amphibious readiness group, which carries 2,000 Marines. The deployment joins the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington already in the region, meaning three carriers could be on station by the end of October — the largest such concentration since April.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran in November, after the November 3 midterm elections. Separately, Treasury sanctioned Iran’s auto and rail sectors on Thursday — state-owned rail firms plus suppliers in the UAE, Hong Kong, Turkey and Indonesia — and Treasury Secretary Bessent claimed on social media that Iran loaded “zero crude” onto tankers in September.
At the same time, Trump told reporters “very good conversations” are happening with Iran, and Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council said new U.S. proposals had been put forward and were under review. The war is eight months old and in stalemate: economic pressure has not bent Iran, the blockade has not opened Hormuz, and both sides keep scheduling their timelines around November 3.