Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Joyce N. Boghosian/White House
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Verst Logistics Manufacturing in Hebron, Ky., March 11, 2026
(JNS) — The U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran could conclude within two to three weeks as the “core strategic objectives” are near completion, President Donald Trump said on Apr 1.
“Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks. Our enemies are losing and America, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning and now winning bigger than ever before,” Trump said in an address to the nation from the White House.
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks; we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Age, where they belong,” he vowed.
Trump stressed that his administration did not seek regime change in Iran, but that has already transpired after its original leaders were killed.
He threatened that if an agreement is not reached, “we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it and it would be gone, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.”
Trump reiterated his rationale for initiating “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, saying that from day one when he launched his campaign for president in 2015, he avowed that he would never allow the Islamic Republic to have a nuclear weapon.
“This fanatical regime has been chanting ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’ for 47 years,” and has been killing Americans for decades, the president said.
He placed blame on Iran for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel’s northwestern Negev and for slaughtering “45,000 of its own people” who protested in the streets of Iran in February.
“For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat,” he stressed.
Trump said that this situation should have been handled long before he assumed office.
The Iranians have stubbornly refused to compromise on their nuclear aspirations, which prompted his decision to bomb their nuclear facilities in “Operation Midnight Hammer” in June, the American leader added.
Iran’s “strategy was so obvious. They wanted to produce as many missiles as possible [that can reach any location on earth] … so no one would dare stop them,” Trump continued.
They were “right at the doorstep” of attaining nuclear weapons, he said.
Now the Iranian “navy is gone, their air force is gone, their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together these actions will cripple Iran militarily, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb,” he added.
Trump thanked America’s allies in the Middle East, “Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain — they’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form.”
Addressing the rising gas prices domestically in light of the war and Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said that this was a temporary hike and that the United States does not need energy commodities that flow through the Mideast waterway.
In light of Washington’s new relationship with Caracas that incorporates an energy partnership, America has ended its dependence on oil and natural gas in the Middle East, he said.
“And yet we are there [in the Mideast] to help. We don’t have to be there, we don’t need their oil, we don’t need anything they have but we’re there to help our allies,” he added.
“The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. Grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily. We will be helpful but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” Trump said.
He called on those nations to buy oil from America, as “we have plenty. And number two, build up some delayed courage — should have done it before, should have done it with us — go to the Strait and just take it. Protect it. Use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done so it should be easy.”
The president said that when the conflict ends, the passageway will “naturally” open up as Iran will seek to export oil to rehabilitate its economy. “The gas prices will rapidly come back down and stock prices will rapidly go back up,” he added.
