{"id":581193,"date":"2026-04-02T18:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581193\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:19:13","slug":"trumps-speech-was-significant-for-what-he-did-not-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581193\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s speech was significant for what he did not say"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Donald Trump’s defining traits is his tendency to call a loss a win.<\/p>\n

The 2020 election is one stark example among many refusals to concede after defeat.<\/p>\n

So, many of Trump’s critics have been expecting that, at some point, he’ll declare a successful end to the war \u2014 regardless of whether it’s won, lost or stuck in a stalemate.<\/p>\n

Iran war live updates:<\/a> For the latest news on the Middle East conflict, read our blog.<\/p>\n

Trump’s prime-time address wasn’t quite a war-is-over declaration of victory. But that will apparently come in two to three weeks.<\/p>\n

“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”<\/p>\n

Trump’s speech contained no major announcements or revelations.<\/p>\n

It also shed no new light on exactly how this all ends, or what will come next.<\/p>\n

Rather, it was largely a cobble-together of past talking points and Truth Social posts, along with a reminder to concerned Americans that past wars have lasted much longer than this one.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most notable takeaways relate to what wasn’t said, rather than what was.<\/p>\n

What wasn’t said<\/p>\n

Despite speculation, Trump did not announce plans to send ground troops into Iran.<\/p>\n

He made only brief mention of the nuclear material known to remain in Iran’s possession and suggested that it could be cause to revive the conflict after it ends.<\/p>\n

“The nuclear sites that we obliterated with the B-2 bombers [last year] have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

“And we have it under intense satellite surveillance and control. If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we’ll hit them with missiles very hard.”<\/p>\n

Trump also did not talk about dumping NATO, despite his public and private musings on the topic in past days.<\/p>\n

And \u2014 significantly, if not surprisingly, given recent statements \u2014 he did not have a plan to deal with Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade or its devastating impacts on the world economy.<\/p>\n

Those nations that need the strait must “grab it and cherish it”, he said.<\/p>\n

“We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” he said.<\/p>\n

In any event, Trump said, “when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally”.<\/p>\n

A different tone to other leaders<\/p>\n

Polling suggests a lot of Americans would have been looking for something else that was largely absent from this speech \u2014 a plan to deal with the spike in living costs caused by the war.<\/p>\n

Though the US is less reliant on oil from the Middle East than a lot of the world, it’s not immune to the economic shocks.<\/p>\n

No more placating Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

Early on, world leaders went out of their way to placate Donald Trump. But as the war with Iran drags into a second month, the UK and European leaders are finding their voices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, average petrol prices shot past $US4 a gallon \u2014 up from less than $US3 a gallon on the eve of the war.<\/p>\n

That’s a hefty hip-pocket hit for those many Americans commuting long distances in big cities.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese and Britain’s Keir Starmer made price spikes central to the national addresses they delivered in the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n

And both outlined multi-point plans to provide some relief: in Australia, cuts to fuel and trucking taxes, and in the UK, a strategy to bring down power bills.<\/p>\n

Trump knows that the cost of living is a key concern for many Americans too.<\/p>\n

In fact, the last time he gave a national address like this \u2014 not including the annual State of the Union \u2014 was a pre-Christmas speech<\/a> about all the ways he said he was making life cheaper.<\/p>\n

But in this speech, that barely featured.<\/p>\n

He said a “short-term increase” in petrol prices was “entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks”, before pointing to his “big beautiful bill” tax cuts and repeating a past pledge that the economy will “soon be roaring back”.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

It was a different tone to that taken by Albanese and Starmer, who both told their countries the coming days would be challenging.<\/p>\n

“The economic shocks caused by this war will be with us for months,” Albanese warned.<\/p>\n

Starmer said he had to “level with people: this will not be easy”.<\/p>\n

Another glaring omission<\/p>\n

Thinking back to the start of the year, a lot of the initial talk of war with Iran was sparked by Trump’s declaration he was “locked and loaded” to save the country’s protesting civilians from the ruling regime.<\/p>\n

“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” he posted on January 2.<\/p>\n

Two months later, when the US and Israel launched their attacks, Trump said he wanted Iranians to rise up and overthrow the regime.<\/p>\n

“When we are finished, take over your government,” he said in a social media video. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

US and Israeli air strikes have caused death and destruction in Tehran. (AP: Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

In today’s national address, Trump claimed regime change had now happened \u2014 even though it was “not our goal” \u2014 because so many leaders had been killed.<\/p>\n

“The new group is less radical and much more reasonable,” he said.<\/p>\n

He’s not given a basis for that belief, which runs counter to the general view of experts that Iran’s new supreme leader is even more extreme than his father, who he replaced.<\/p>\n

(Earlier, on Truth Social, Trump referred to the “new regime president”, even though Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian remains alive and unchanged.)<\/p>\n

Trump says he wants these new “less radical” leaders, whoever they may be, to make a deal.<\/p>\n

“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously,” he said.<\/p>\n

In other words, the president is threatening the plunge the country’s people into darkness and chaos as a way of punishing the regime he promised to protect them from.<\/p>\n

Now \u2014 as is often true when the US gets involved in the Middle East \u2014 suffering civilians barely rate a mention.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is the most glaring, but least surprising, omission of all.<\/p>\n

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