By LISA MASCARO, MATTHEW LEE and MICHELLE L. PRICE<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0sought Wednesday to explain his rationale for the\u00a0war against Iran<\/a>\u00a0at a pivotal moment at home and abroad, but he offered few new details as he amasses\u00a0extraordinary executive authority<\/a>\u00a0to prosecute the military operation.<\/p>\n Notably missing from\u00a0Trump\u2019s primetime address<\/a>\u00a0was his oft-repeated assertion that negotiations with Iran were underway. He softened his insults against NATO allies and did not indicate he was preparing to send in ground troops, particularly to retrieve Iran\u2019s enriched uranium. But he gave no definitive end date for the conflict.<\/p>\n The war is fast becoming a signature of his second-term agenda, and the speech was a capstone to a remarkable day flexing presidential power.<\/p>\n Trump started the morning as the\u00a0first sitting president<\/a>\u00a0to show up for a U.S. Supreme Court hearing, a stunning reach of the executive into the affairs of the judicial branch. He ended with his first address from the White House about a war he launched on his own,\u00a0bulldozing past Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n On a night when many Americans may have been looking upward as\u00a0Artemis II astronauts<\/a>\u00a0lifted off for NASA\u2019s return to the moon, Trump gave a nod to that historic milestone. Then he quickly refocused attention back to him \u2014 and to the conflict with Iran that has\u00a0killed more than a dozen U.S. service members<\/a>\u00a0and appears to have\u00a0no easy exit in sight<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning \u2014 and now winning bigger than ever before,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to finish the job and were going to finish it very fast,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Trump tries to sell Americans on the war<\/p>\n The president said he wanted to \u201cdiscuss why Operation Epic Fury is necessary for the safety of America and the security of the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n He aimed to show that one goal of Wednesday\u2019s speech was to take on the confusion that has persisted as the administration\u00a0shifted its reasons<\/a>\u00a0for launching the war.<\/p>\n But over the course of nearly 20 minutes, Trump did not offer any new explanations.<\/p>\n He maintained that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, calling such a prospect \u201can intolerable threat,\u201d and said the country was building a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles that were a threat to America\u2019s homeland.<\/p>\n While he said\u00a0Iran\u2019s ballistic missile capacity<\/a>\u00a0was greatly reduced, he didn\u2019t explain how the operation had headed off Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions. He and his administration had previously insisted that the U.S. and Israel \u201cobliterated\u201d\u00a0Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/a>\u00a0in strikes last summer.<\/p>\n And as he painted the threats from Iran generally as having been wiped away, Trump didn\u2019t back up that assertion, especially as multiple competing factions of power remain within Iran\u2019s theocracy.<\/p>\n Iran long has insisted its nuclear program was peaceful. It had, however, been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.<\/p>\n Before the war, U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Iran had yet to begin a weapons program, but had \u201cundertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump provides little information about next steps<\/p>\n Thousands of\u00a0additional U.S. troops<\/a>\u00a0are heading to the Middle East. Gulf allies are\u00a0urging Trump to finish the fight<\/a>, arguing that Tehran hasn\u2019t been weakened enough.<\/p>\n And yet Trump days ago predicted the U.S. will be done \u201cwithin maybe two weeks.\u201d On Wednesday, he said the U.S. would hit Iran \u201cextremely hard over the next two to three weeks.\u201d Then oil prices rose.<\/p>\n He said the \u201ccore strategic objectives are nearing completion\u201d and did not signal any preparations for a ground invasion by American troops \u2014 to retrieve\u00a0Iran\u2019s enriched uranium<\/a>\u00a0or help\u00a0secure the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, where a chokehold by Iran has sent energy prices soaring.<\/p>\n In fact, he said the nuclear sites bombed last year would be difficult for Iran to access and that the U.S. has them under satellite surveillance.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we see them make a move, even a move for it, we\u2019ll hit them with missiles very hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump is fast approaching the 60-day mark when he must seek\u00a0approval from Congress<\/a>\u00a0under the War Powers Act to continue any military operations.<\/p>\n He did not discuss any diplomatic efforts to work toward a ceasefire and seemed to suggest the war would end after the U.S. finished hitting its targets. After days of Trump insisting that positive talks with Iran were happening, the omission was noticeable. Iran has denied the negotiations were taking place.<\/p>\n Trump avoids renewed threats to NATO allies<\/p>\n Despite having started the week with a torrent of\u00a0abuse directed at NATO allies<\/a>\u00a0and other U.S. partners for not participating in the conflict, which included several\u00a0direct threats to withdraw from NATO<\/a>, Trump was unusually restrained in his comments.<\/p>\n He did not mention NATO at all and said merely that countries depending the most on global oil shipments usually transported through the Strait of Hormuz need to take the lead in protecting the key waterway once the war is over.<\/p>\n \u201cThe countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage,\u201d he said in his address. \u201cThey must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said those countries should \u201cbuild up some delayed courage,\u201d but he did not call specific allies out by name as he has previously.<\/p>\n \u201cGo to the strait and just take it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe hard part is done, so it should be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump faces political ramifications and economic worries at home<\/p>\n Trump, who ran as the \u201cAmerica First\u201d president vowing not to drag the country into endless wars, has yet to fully address the political pushback he faces from his own\u00a0base of supporters<\/a>\u00a0over the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n In the most explicit terms yet, he acknowledged that many Americans are concerned about gas prices and called them a \u201cshort-term increase.\u201d<\/p>\n But the president insisted the U.S. has become \u201cthe hottest country anywhere in the world\u201d with Americans benefitting from what he calls the \u201cbig beautiful bill\u201d he signed into law last year.<\/p>\n