WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing jittery global markets and drooping domestic poll numbers since the US and Israel launched a war with Iran, US President Donald Trump has cycled from calls for “unconditional surrender” to sounding amenable to an end state in which Iran trades one hardline ayatollah for another.
Shifting comments from the president and his top aides are adding to the precariousness of the 13-day-old conflict, which began with US-Israeli strikes on the Iranian regime on February 28 and is impacting nearly every corner of the Middle East and causing economic tremors around the globe. With neither side budging, the war is now on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday it was up to Trump “whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end” of the war.
Trump, during the course of one speech at a House Republican gathering Monday, went from calling the war a “short-term excursion” that could end soon to proclaiming “we haven’t won enough.”
“We have hit them harder than virtually any country in history has been hit, and we’re not finished yet,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The vacillation has fueled criticism from those who say Trump lacks a clear goal. “They didn’t have a plan,” Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, told reporters. “They have no timeline. And because of that, they have no exit strategy.”
Israel’s leaders, for their part, have said they are committed to the fight. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “The operation will continue without any time limit.”
US Senator Mark Kelly leaves after a closed door briefing on the Iran war before the Senate Armed Services Committee at the Capitol on March 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Since ordering the Iran bombardment, Trump has continually shifted his timelines and goals for the war.
Over the past few days, Trump has called for the “unconditional surrender” of Iran’s leaders, while suggesting he had already succeeded in achieving his objective of decimating Iran’s military.
At the same time, Trump’s team has sought to soothe anxious Americans that the war will not be long and drawn out even as the president has insisted he has not ruled out the option of using US ground troops.
The US military says it has effectively destroyed the Iranian navy and made huge strides in defanging Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones at its neighbors. Yet the critical Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil passes on a typical day, remains essentially closed to business, and Iranian leaders are unbowed.
The Revolutionary Guard said Iran would not allow “a single liter of oil” through the vital waterway until the United States stopped its bombing campaign. Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, offered a menacing message on Tuesday after Trump had threatened to attack Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER” if Tehran stopped oil flowing through the strait.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats,” Larijani wrote on X. “Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
Members of Iranian paramilitary forces (Basij) attend an anti-Israeli rally in Tehran, January 10, 2025. (AFP)
Trump ally Newt Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker, said the administration should have moved on securing the strait on the first day of the conflict.
“If they can’t keep it open, this war will in fact be an American defeat before very long, because the entire world, including the American people, will react to the price of oil if the strait stays closed very long,” Gingrich said in an appearance on Fox Business.
Making the case to Americans
Trump has struggled to make his case to Americans about why preemptive action against Iran was necessary and how it squared with his pledge to keep the United States out of the “forever wars” of the past two decades. Thus far, seven US troops have been killed and about 140 injured in the retaliatory salvos from Iran, which have targeted locations across the region.
One of several reasons Trump has offered to justify launching the war was that he had a “feeling” that Iran was getting set to attack the US.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slightly amended that position, telling reporters that the president “had a feeling” that was “based on fact.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, on March 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
But Pentagon officials have told congressional staffers in private briefings that the US does not have intelligence indicating that Iran was planning to preemptively attack the US.
Recent polling shows Trump’s decision to attack Iran has not come with the rallying-around-the-flag effect that has typically accompanied the start of recent US wars.
About half of voters in Quinnipiac and Fox News polls said the US military action in Iran makes the US “less safe,” while only about 3 in 10 in each poll said it made the country safer. A CNN poll found about half of US adults thought the military action would make Iran “more of a threat” to the US, while only about 3 in 10 thought it would lessen the danger.
In that CNN poll, about 6 in 10 US adults said they trusted Trump “not much” or “not at all” to make the right decisions about American use of force in Iran.
Military ground personnel walk past Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) next to US Air Force (USAF) B-1 Lancer bombers (behind) on the tarmac at RAF Fairford in south-west England on March 11, 2026. (Henry NICHOLLS / AFP)
European allies are treading carefully after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faced the wrath of Trump, who deemed them not sufficiently supportive in backing the war.
Trump on Wednesday lashed out again at Spain, which has said it will not allow the US to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the UN charter.
“I think they’ve been very bad — not good at all,” Trump said. “We may cut off trade with Spain.”
Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been broadly supportive of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, said on Tuesday that “more questions arise with every day of war.”
Deflecting responsibility for school bombing
Trump has chosen to deflect responsibility for the bombing of a girl’s school in southern Iran on the first day of the conflict, which killed at least 165 people.
Trump on Saturday blamed the attack on Iran, saying its security forces are “very inaccurate” with munitions.
On Monday, after the investigative group Bellingcat posted verified video that showed a US Tomahawk cruise missile hitting a Revolutionary Guard facility near the school, causing the explosion, Trump again insisted it could have been Iran’s fault but said that he would accept whatever a US investigation into the matter might find.
In this aerial handout picture released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves during the funeral for children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran’s Hormozgan province in Minab on March 3, 2026. (Iranian Press Center / AFP)
The president erroneously claimed that Tehran had access to Tomahawks, a US-manufactured weapon system that is only available to the US and a few close allies.
Asked by a reporter, Leavitt did not directly answer why Trump falsely asserted that Iran has access to the US-made missile.
Instead, she responded in part that “the president has a right to share his opinions with the American public” while noting “he has said he’ll accept the conclusion of that investigation.”
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Trump’s claim “is beyond asinine.”
“Again, he says whatever pops into his head, no matter what the truth is,” Schumer said. “And we all know he lies, but on something as formidable as this, it’s appalling.”
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters after a weekly luncheon, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
US Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, was among Trump allies gently making the case that it was important for the administration to clarify what happened to the school.
Cramer said the military must “do everything you can to eliminate those mistakes going forward.”
“But you also can’t undo it,” he added.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.