{"id":467247,"date":"2026-03-10T05:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467247\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T05:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T05:58:07","slug":"vague-and-contradictory-trump-says-iran-war-won-but-not-won-enough-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/467247\/","title":{"rendered":"Vague and contradictory Trump says Iran war \u2018won\u2019, but not \u2018won enough\u2019 | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

At one of the most consequential moments of his two terms in office, wartime president Donald Trump<\/a> on Monday delivered a vague and contradictory forecast for how long the United States will continue to fight in Iran and what the ultimate goal of the US military campaign there will be.<\/p>\n

With oil hovering above $100 a barrel for much of Monday<\/a> and Middle Eastern allies fearing a further tumble into regional conflict, Trump appeared in Doral, Florida<\/a> with the mission of calming global markets and reassuring skittish allies that he has a clear vision for how to end the largest US intervention in the Middle East since the Iraq war.<\/p>\n

If there is one, it was not delivered in this press conference.<\/p>\n

In a 35-minute appearance, the US president eschewed the specifics to hammer home how thoroughly the US has destroyed Iran\u2019s military and to bolster suspicions that there has been little planning for what comes next. After floating remarks that the war was \u201cvery complete, pretty much\u201d to a CBS News reporter in a phone call, he then evaded a reporter\u2019s question about whether that meant the war could wrap up this week. \u201cNo but soon. I think soon. Very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporters tried again. \u201cYou said the war is \u2018very complete\u2019. But your defense secretary says \u2018this is just the beginning.\u2019 So which is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you could say both,\u201d Trump replied. Straight away he added: \u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of building a new country\u201d. Never mind that Trump and his top advisers had ruled out managing an effort at nation-building in Iran; hours have passed and indeed Trump\u2019s own vision for Iran seems to change<\/a> with every telephone call he has taken from a reporter in the last 10 days.<\/p>\n

Thanks to his CBS call, there was a sense that he may be preparing to announce a drawdown. But he stopped short of a mission accomplished moment here and instead said the war would continue.<\/p>\n

Trump leaves after speaking to reporters during a news conference. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could call it a tremendous success right now or we could go further,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to go further.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have won in many ways,\u201d he said in a characteristic moment during a speech to Republican allies before the press conference. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t won enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a head-scratcher, and Democrats quickly jumped on those remarks to say that Trump\u2019s goals for the Iran conflict were incoherent or simply absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne word to sum up Trump\u2019s press conference: clueless,\u201d wrote Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader from New York. \u201cHe can\u2019t articulate a plan or a vision because he has no plan or vision. He can\u2019t even decide whether or not the country is at war. He\u2019s risking the world economy and the lives of millions on whims and vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other reminders of how US foreign policy has now fully passed through the looking-glass. Trump on Monday said that he would relax sanctions on certain countries sales of oil<\/a> to help calm markets, reversing his own policy of increasing economic pressure on Russian oil sales to help end the conflict in Ukraine. He then added that the US may not ultimately return those sanctions once global markets return to normal. \u201cWho knows \u2026 maybe we won\u2019t have to put them on, there will be so much peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the most striking moment, Trump suggested that Iran had covertly obtained a Tomahawk missile<\/a> and then used it to strike a girl\u2019s school in the city of Minab, killing more than 168 people<\/a> \u2013 most of them children.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the US would accept any responsibility for the strike, which occurred not long before the US hit a naval base nearby<\/a>, Trump suggested: \u201cTomahawks are used by many countries,\u201d and that \u201cIran has some Tomahawks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was more than many reporters in the room could stomach.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war,\u201d said one reporter, before asking why \u201cyou\u2019re the only person in your government saying this\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I just don\u2019t know enough about it\u201d, Trump responded. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that I was told is under investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At one of the most consequential moments of his two terms in office, wartime president Donald Trump on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-467247","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}