Here is a recap of Trump’s first address on the Iran war
The US president said the conflict will last another two to three weeks
President Donald Trump delivered his first address on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran at the White House Wednesday night, a conflict which has torn through his Republican base and brought his approval rating to an all-time low of 33 percent.
Nonetheless, he applauded Operation Epic Fury and said the U.S. “is winning bigger than ever before.”
Here are some statements he made:
The war will last another two to three weeks
Trump said that the conflict is expected to last another two to three weeks and vowed to “hit Iran extremely hard.”
“We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast,” he added.
Trump had originally said on Feb. 28 — when the war began — that it would last between four to six weeks.
He gave his address in the fifth week of the conflict.
The war was not waged for regime change
“Regime change was never our goal,” Trump said in the address, contradicting an earlier Truth Social post.
On Jan. 13, the president encouraged Iranians to “keep protesting” and that “help is on its way’ during deadly anti-regime demonstrations that had experts speculating about the Islamic Republic’s downfall.
Despite saying it was not the objective, Trump claimed that “regime change has occurred because of their [the Iranians] original leader’s death,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s killing by an Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.
The Islamic Republic’s regime is largely intact, however.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, was elected in March to succeed him, and an intelligence source told the Washington Post that “consistent analysis” shows “that the regime is not in danger” and “retains control of the Iranian public.”
He claimed Iran is to blame for the gas price surge
Trump acknowledged the surge in gas prices Americans are dealing with as a result of the war, but blamed it on Iran.
“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” he said. “This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”
Before the war began, the average gallon of gas in the U.S. cost between $2.80 to $2.90. At the time of Trump’s address, it had gone up to $4.06.
He ‘did what no other president was willing to do’
Trump said that his launching of the war against Iran was an action that previous leaders would not have dared to make.
“Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do,” Trump said. “They made mistakes, and I am correcting them.”
He claimed that Israel would not have existed if he did not end President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal and called Iran the region’s “bully.”