Trump says US will be ‘leaving’ Iran ‘very soon,’ insists regime change was never a war aim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the United States will probably wrap up the Iran war in two or three weeks — an admission that the war will likely extend beyond the White House’s four-to-six week timeline.
Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump first says that the US will be “leaving” Iran “very soon,” insisting that gasoline prices will subsequently “tumble down” as well.
After a reporter notes that Americans are feeling the financial squeeze at the gas pump, Trump declares they’re also “feeling a lot safer” because Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon.
Trump claims the “detour” from improving the US economy was necessary in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, something he says he already prevented in last year’s strikes against Tehran’s nuclear sites.
As for the Strait of Hormuz, Trump says other countries who want to get their oil through the key waterway will have to “fend for themselves,” acknowledging that Iran could drop mines or direct machine gun and RPG fire at ships.
“I think it’ll be very safe, but we have nothing to do with that,” Trump says of the strait, which Iran has shuttered in response to the US and Israeli attacks.
Trump asserts the US has done its part by taking out dozens of Iran’s “radicalized lunatic” leaders.
He also reiterates his claim that the US has enacted “regime change” in Iran, even though the Islamic Republic is still standing. Still, he insists that the new leadership is “much more rational.”
Trump then says regime change wasn’t even his goal to begin with, even though he urged Iranians to take over the government once the bombing stops in the speech he gave upon launching the war.
He insists that he only had one war aim: Ensuring Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
His aides have listed at least four other goals, though those too have ranged from the destruction of Iran’s missile program, the destruction of its navy, the destruction of its air force and the cessation of its support for proxies
Pressed for a more specific timeline for when the war might end, Trump responds, “I think week two or three weeks.”
“Within maybe two weeks — maybe a couple of days longer,” Trump adds later on.
Trump has a history of providing two-week timelines in a variety of policy fields that he hasn’t typically stuck with.
“We want to knock out every single thing they have now, [But] it’s possible that we’ll make a deal before that,” Trump adds.
He says he’d like to hit some additional bridges in Iran, predicting that it will take 15 to 20 years to rebuild what has been hit in the war.