President Trump says U.S. to continue strikes on Iran for 2-3 weeks

Update, 9:24 p.m.:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday night addressed the nation on the ongoing conflict in Iran, just over one month after Operation Epic Fury began. Trump described sweeping, decisive, and overwhelming battlefield victories, insisting that Iran’s navy, air force, and defense industrial base was decimated. He added that most of Iran’s leaders, whom he described as being part of a terrorist regime, were now dead. He also said Iran’s nuclear sites had been hit so hard that it would be months before anyone on the ground would be able to approach them.

Did Trump say when the operation would be over? The president said all of the United States’ military objectives would be achieved soon but did not provide a more precise timeline. He said the U.S. military would continue to hit Iran very hard over the next 2-3 weeks, and unless Iranian leaders decided to make a deal, would strike their electric generator plants. He also suggested that the United States could strike Iran's oil fields, but said he's resisted doing so thus far in the conflict because Iran would have no way to rebuild if they were destroyed.

Did he elaborate on why Operation Epic Fury was necessary? Trump outlined what he described as 47 years of Iranian terrorism, beginning with the 1978 Iranian revolution and listing multiple attacks against America and its allies, including the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 U.S. Navy sailors. He said Iran had links to the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks against Israel led by the terror group Hamas, and that more recently, the Iranian regime had murdered roughly 45,000 of its own people who demonstrated against the government. He said that without intervention, Iran would soon have had missiles that could reach the American coast, and that they were “right at the doorstep” of obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he said could not be allowed to happen.  

What about the Strait of Hormuz? Trump described the recent spike in U.S. gas prices as  short-term, and  insisted the United States has an adequate oil supply. He said the United States imports virtually no oil through the Strait of Hormuz, so Iran’s recent actions to close the passageway down will have little-to-no effect on the U.S. economy. As for countries that regularly import oil that travels through the strait, Trump repeated statements made earlier this week, urging those countries to either purchase oil from the United States or seize the strait themselves, by force. 

Original story:

President Donald Trump will provide an update on Operation Epic Fury during an address of the nation at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to a statement from the White House. The stream will be available here once it begins.

Earlier in the day, Trump said Iran’s new leader, whom he characterized as less radicalized and more intelligent than his predecessor, had asked for a ceasefire, according to a post on Truth Social. Trump said the request would only be considered once the Strait of Hormuz was opened and promised to continue U.S. attacks on Iran until then.

The address comes amid ongoing friction between President Trump and America’s European allies. On Tuesday, Trump in a statement called on the United Kingdom to either purchase oil from the United States or take the Strait of Hormuz by military force, adding, “Go get your own oil!” In a statement on Wednesday, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the conflict in Iran was not the U.K.’s war and the U.K. would not be dragged into it.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ story about an Iran-aligned militia linked to the kidnapping of an American in Iraq.