In the wake of pulling the United States out of the JCPOA in May 2018, Trump didn't waste time. He went straight for Iran's wallet. The plan was simple, at least on paper: choke off oil money, choke off trade, and force Tehran back to the table for a bigger deal covering nukes and regional behavior. The White House didn't mince words either, calling the reimposed measures “the toughest sanctions ever on Iran.” Bold claim. But they meant it, targeting what they called “critical sectors” of the economy. None of this came from nowhere, though. The whole framework leaned on restrictions dating back to 1979, just repackaged and enforced through a mess of different legal authorities.
So what got hit? Energy, shipping, shipbuilding, finance. The big stuff. Oil sales took a beating, along with banking and insurance. Congress had already laid out sanctions authority touching construction, mining, textiles, automotive, manufacturing, you name it.
And then, almost as an afterthought, gold, precious metals, graphite, aluminium, steel, coal, industrial software. Basically anything that made money got flagged.
Here's the kicker, though: it wasn't just Iran feeling the squeeze. Secondary sanctions went after foreign banks and companies still doing business there. The warning was blunt, work with Iran, lose access to the U.S. market. Simple as that. Treasury kept expanding this over time, and by 2026, the White House was floating tariffs on countries buying goods or services from Iran. AP even named names, banks in China, Hong Kong, the UAE, Oman. Nobody was safe from the list, apparently. Central banks in targeted regions also found themselves navigating tighter foreign exchange market regulations as sanctions reshaped cross-border financial flows and currency controls. When a nation's currency comes under sustained external pressure, monetary policy interventions by central banks become a critical tool for stabilizing exchange rates and managing capital flight. Smaller economies particularly exposed to these ripple effects often face heightened currency trading risks as speculative pressures compound the instability triggered by geopolitical disruptions.
And the numbers? Staggering. More than 700 individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft went back on the sanctions list in 2018 alone. BBC confirmed hundreds of named targets. Fast forward, and the campaign ballooned past 1,500 sanctions during Trump's first term. By 2026, reports put the total near 2,000 over eight years.
Timing mattered too. Some sanctions hit immediately in August 2018. The heavier stuff, oil, shipping, transactions with Iran's central bank, waited until November 5. Slow burn, not a knockout punch. That was the strategy all along.
