Facing economic and political headwinds a month after launching a surprise attack on Iran, President Donald Trump defended the increasingly unpopular conflict Wednesday night, but assured the nation that the military activity in the Middle East was “nearing completion.”
In a speech from the White House, Trump said the United States was on track to complete all of its military objectives “shortly, very shortly” but first there would be a period of military buildup: “We’re going to hit them extremely hard,” he said. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Age.”
Trump also sought to clear up contradictory statements about the competing objectives of the bombardment launched on Feb. 28, saying it was a continuation of political promises he’s made for years: to deny Iran a nuclear weapon.
“From the very first day, I announced my campaign for president in 2015 I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “They were right at the doorstep for years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words if you’re not willing to take action when the time comes.”
The president’s defense of his actions, and his direct entreaty to the American people, comes as the White House tries to contain the consequences of a conflict that has sent gas prices soaring and soured Americans’ feelings about Trump and the economy, six months before the midterm elections.
While he said discussions with Iran were “ongoing,” Trump made no mention of the list of 15 demands he has sent to Tehran — via the government of Pakistan — or what he said earlier Wednesday was Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s offer of a ceasefire. The Iranian government denied such an offer had been made and has made its own demands, including control over the Strait of Hormuz and war reparations for destruction by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
The administration has given shifting explanations about the goals of the conflict, and Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have spent recent days vowing to end the war while at the same time threatening to escalate it. Trump’s descriptions of progress in negotiations have been contradicted by Iranian leaders.
The United States and Israel launched the attack on Iran just over a month ago, the second major military action by the United States in as many months, following an operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Iran’s supreme leader and more than a dozen other leaders were assassinated in a matter of days in what the president said would be a surgical operation.
But in the past month, the toll — in dollars, global economic turmoil and casualties — has continued to mount. Iranian leaders blocked off the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Tanker traffic has diminished to a trickle and the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. shot past $4.
On Wednesday, Trump said the gas spike would be “a short-term increase” and that it resulted from Iran’s attacks on commercial oil tankers.
America’s allies have become exasperated by an out-of-the-blue conflict that is causing global economic fallout, even as the U.S. uses their airspace and military bases to launch additional attacks. Thousands of U.S. service members have been sent to the Middle East, and 13 have been killed.
Some Republicans and Trump supporters have argued that the month-long military action in a country 7,000 miles away also goes against the noninterventionist ethos that has marked Trump’s “America First” agenda for the past decade. The economic costs of that involvement are more than philosophical for the president’s critics and supporters alike. The price of a barrel of oil has gone above $100 under the watch of a president who vowed to decrease inflation and usher in a “golden age” of American prosperity.
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose the conflict in Iran across five recent surveys interviewing over 10,000 Americans, according to a Washington Post analysis of polls. A Pew Research Center poll in mid-March found 59 percent said they believed the U.S. made the “wrong decision in using military force in Iran,” while a Fox News poll found 58 percent oppose “the current U.S. military action against Iran.” And 65 percent of Americans say the Trump administration has not adequately explained the purpose of the conflict.
This week, Trump has laid the groundwork for a withdrawal from the conflict, even as he has surged the military to the region.
On Tuesday, he waved off the argument that both sides would need to reach an agreement for the U.S. to walk away from the conflict, saying the new Iranian regime is already “much more accessible.”
“No, they don’t have to make a deal with me when we feel that they are, for a long period of time, put into the Stone Ages, and they won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Then we’ll leave whether we have a deal or not. It’s irrelevant now.”
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