{"id":576724,"date":"2026-04-02T05:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576724\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T05:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:19:08","slug":"we-have-all-the-cards-trump-says-us-war-on-iran-nearing-completion-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576724\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have all the cards\u2019: Trump says US war on Iran \u2018nearing completion\u2019 | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening to declare the month-long war in Iran a success \u201cnearing completion\u201d, despite a spiraling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded<\/a> the president\u2019s approval ratings.<\/p>\n

In remarks from the White House, Trump argued that the US\u2019s \u201clittle journey\u201d to Iran<\/a> had nearly accomplished \u201call of America\u2019s military objectives\u201d, but offered little clarity on how he planned to wind down the conflict over the next \u201ctwo to three weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on the cusp of ending Iran\u2019s sinister threat to America and the world,\u201d Trump said in the 19-minute speech, delivered from Cross Hall of the White House. \u201cWe have all the cards. They have none.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the economic pain caused by the conflict, he blamed a \u201cshort-term\u201d rise in gas prices on Iran\u2019s actions, and insisted the US had become energy independent.<\/p>\n

Oil prices rose and Asian stocks traded lower immediately after Trump\u2019s address, which did little to soothe investor concerns over the closure of the strait of Hormuz. The US president reiterated his call for other nations to help secure the global oil chokepoint: \u201cGrab it and cherish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has effectively closed the strait since the beginning of the conflict, causing oil prices to soar. In the US, the cost of gas surged past an average of $4 a gallon<\/a> for the first time since 2022 this week.<\/p>\n

Trump did not mention a looming deadline he set for Iran to open the strait. Amid the uncertainty, brent crude \u2013 the international standard \u2013 jumped 4.9% to $106.16 a barrel, while gold dipped 2% to $4,718.70 an ounce and silver lost 4.9% to $72.39 an ounce.<\/p>\n

Ticking through a list of claimed achievements, Trump said Iran\u2019s navy and air force had been decimated, leaving the country weak and \u201cno longer a threat\u201d to the US and the world. He, however, said the US would continue to hit Iran \u201cextremely hard\u201d for next several weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong,\u201d he said, even as he said \u201cdiscussions were ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democrats criticised Trump\u2019s address as \u201cincoherent\u201d and doing little to answer \u201cthe most basic questions the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democratic senator Mark Warner said in a statement that Trump owed Americans more answers about a conflict that has driven up prices on gas and other essentials, \u201cwith consequences that will continue to ripple through the economy for a long time. Senator Chris Murphy said: \u201cNo one in America, after listening to that speech, knows whether we are escalating or deescalating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The war continues to grind on, with thousands of deaths in Iran and in countries across the Middle East since 28 February. Strikes rocked Tehran on Wednesday morning. And Israel said it had carried out two waves of attacks <\/a>on Tehran and claimed to have killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.<\/p>\n

Iran has continued to retaliate, with missile attacks on central Israel and across the Middle East \u2013 including a barrage timed just hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.<\/p>\n

According to estimates from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, at least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured in Iran since the war began, though precise figures are difficult to verify.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, more than 1,300 people have been killed, according to the country\u2019s health ministry. Most of those who have died have been Lebanese civilians, but Hezbollah estimates about 400 have been its fighters.<\/p>\n

And a total of 19 people have been killed and 515 injured in Israel since the war began.<\/p>\n

At least 13 American service members have been killed, with hundreds more troops wounded.<\/p>\n

US forces have struck more than 12,300 targets inside Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury, according to a statement released by US Central Command on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the war, the Trump administration<\/a> has sent mixed and at times contradictory signals about the US\u2019s objectives. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran\u2019s leadership was seeking a ceasefire, and in a Wednesday social media post described Iran\u2019s \u201cnew regime president\u201d as having \u201cjust asked\u201d for one \u2013 which Tehran called \u201cfalse and baseless\u201d.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, it was unclear who Trump had spoken to \u2013 Iran has a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, who succeeded his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after he was killed on the opening day of US-led airstrikes against Iran. Iranian president Masoud \u200bPezeshkian took office in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Before the president\u2019s speech on Wednesday, \u200bPezeshkian appealed directly to the American people with a message of his own. \u201cExactly which of the American people\u2019s interests are truly being served by this war?\u201d \u200bPezeshkian asked in a letter posted in English on his X account. \u201cWas there any objective threat from Iran to justify such behavior?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200bPezeshkian suggested the US had entered the war at Israel\u2019s urging, and insisted that Iran\u2019s attacks on its neighbors was a \u201cmeasured response grounded in legitimate self-defense\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs \u2018America First\u2019 truly among the priorities of the US government today?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Complicating the picture further, Trump has lashed out at the US\u2019s allies<\/a>, citing their refusal to join the war effort and inaction to reopen the strait of Hormuz in a series of escalating social media posts and interviews. In his remarks on Wednesday evening he made no mention of Nato, but earlier in the day he told Reuters he was \u201cabsolutely without question\u201d considering withdrawing from Nato.<\/p>\n

He also told the Telegraph that he was \u201cnever swayed\u201d by the 77-year-old military alliance and \u201calways knew they were a paper tiger\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump has suggested that a ceasefire would depend on Tehran reopening the strait of Hormuz, while indicating that US forces could be \u201cout of Iran pretty quickly\u201d. He left open the possibility of \u201cspot hits\u201d inside Iran if necessary.<\/p>\n

In his speech, the president also took pains to distinguish the current conflict from America\u2019s often lengthy past wars, calling the 32-day military campaign \u201cso powerful, so brilliant\u201d.<\/p>\n

With the war in its fifth week, key US objectives remain unclear. Trump has downplayed concerns about Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, dismissing it as too deeply buried underground to matter. He had previously argued that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was a major justification for the war. Analysts have disputed the US president\u2019s claims that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, thousands of US troops remain positioned in the region, providing the option of a broader ground campaign after weeks of airstrikes targeting Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening to declare the month-long war in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-576724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}