{"id":564728,"date":"2026-04-04T20:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564728\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:05:10","slug":"trump-says-the-end-of-the-iran-war-is-very-close-what-has-it-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564728\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says the end of the Iran war is ‘very close.’ What has it accomplished?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his first prime-time address<\/a> since the start of the Iran war, President Trump declared on Wednesday that the U.S. operation in the Middle East was \u201cnearing completion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to finish the job, and we\u2019re going to finish it very fast,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting very close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president went on to say that U.S. forces would \u201chit\u201d Iranian targets \u201cextremely hard over the next two to three weeks\u201d while his administration continues to push for peace talks, which Tehran has publicly resisted.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Iran shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle \u2014 the first confirmed loss of an American warplane over Iranian territory in the war \u2014 leaving one crew member missing as the U.S. launched a search and rescue operation. Trump said the incidents would not affect ceasefire negotiations. “No, not at all. No, it’s war,” he told<\/a> reporters.<\/p>\n

So if the war does end in the next few weeks, what will it have accomplished? Trump insisted on Wednesday that \u201cour enemies are losing, and America \u2014 as it has been for five years under my presidency \u2014 is winning, and now winning bigger than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

But will Americans consider the operation a success if the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, if oil and gas prices are still sky-high<\/a> and if the Iranian regime still holds power?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a rundown of what has changed because of the Iran war \u2014 and what hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Crippling Iran\u2019s military<\/p>\n

All along, U.S. Central Command has said its primary military objective is \u201celiminating Iran\u2019s ability to project power outside its borders in meaningful ways.\u201d The administration now says that joint U.S. and Israeli strikes have largely accomplished that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done all of it,\u201d Trump said in Wednesday\u2019s speech. \u201cTheir navy is gone, their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran\u2019s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hits a building near the airport road in Beirut on March 31.<\/p>\n

(Hussein Malla\/AP)<\/p>\n

Over the last month, CENTCOM has offered few details about specific attacks on Iran. But the cumulative scale of the onslaught is striking. According to a Wednesday release, the U.S. military has so far hit more than 12,300 targets in Iran \u2014 including command centers, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard, air defense systems, missile sites, navy ships and submarines. More than 13,000 U.S. combat flights have been completed; more than 155 Iranian vessels have been damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel has conducted hundreds of waves of its own strikes, dropping more than 13,000 bombs on air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, nuclear facilities and various headquarters.<\/p>\n

As a result, the rate of Iranian missile and drone strikes has plummeted. The U.S. has achieved such complete air superiority, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, that the Air Force is now flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory for the first time since the war began.<\/p>\n

Even so, Iran retains the ability to inflict damage in the region. Iran shot down an F-15E Strike Eagle on Friday \u2014 the first confirmed loss of a U.S. warplane over Iranian territory in the war. One crew member was rescued; the other, a weapons system officer, remained unaccounted for as of Saturday.<\/p>\n

Iran offered bounties for the downed crew \u2014 regional authorities called on locals to turn in anyone they found, and merchants pooled together roughly $60,000. An A-10 Warthog supporting the rescue was hit by Iranian fire; the pilot managed to reach Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting, and the aircraft crashed in Kuwait. Two Black Hawks involved in the operation took Iranian fire as well; none of the crew members were hurt.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A damaged Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft following an Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

(Social media via Reuters)Muddying the waters on Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/p>\n

In June 2025, coordinated U.S. and Israeli attacks severely damaged three of Iran\u2019s key nuclear facilities. Trump said at the time that the sites had been \u201ccompletely and totally obliterated,\u201d putting a \u201cstop to the nuclear threat posed by the world\u2019s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after abruptly ending ongoing negotiations and attacking Iran on Feb. 28, the president said that the regime had \u201cattempted to rebuild their nuclear program\u201d and insisted that the war would \u201censure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear if that goal has been met. In a video posted Wednesday on social media, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran had been trying to build a shield of missiles and drones \u201cso that no one could do anything about their nuclear weapons program in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Destroying Iran\u2019s missile and drone program will \u201cfinally\u201d force the regime to \u201cdeal with the world seriously about never, ever having nuclear weapons,\u201d Rubio predicted.<\/p>\n

Perhaps serious nuclear negotiations will resume after the war. But so far, Iranian leaders have refused U.S. calls for a permanent end to uranium enrichment and the removal of all near-bomb-grade fuel.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, that buried fuel \u2014 970 pounds of 60% enriched uranium that could one day power 10 to 12 bombs \u2014 remains untouched.<\/p>\n

And Trump now says that no longer bothers him. The uranium is \u201cso far underground, I don\u2019t care about that,\u201d the president told Reuters on Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019ll always be watching it by satellite.\u201d<\/p>\n

If necessary, Trump added, \u201cwe\u2019ll come back to do spot hits\u201d \u2014 or one of his successors can just attack again. \u201c[Iran] will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years,\u201d Trump said on Tuesday. \u201cWhen they are ready \u2026 you\u2019ll have a president that will be like me\u201d and \u201cknock the hell out of them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all of that in mind, experts say the war may have actually increased rather than decreased the risk of future conflict. \u201cThey still have the material, and we still have no greater insight into \u2026 what they might do with it,\u201d Emma Belcher, president of the nonproliferation foundation Ploughshares, told the Guardian<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve also likely increased [Tehran\u2019s] calculus that they will seek nuclear weapons to prevent the very kind of attack we\u2019ve just witnessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway along Iran\u2019s southern coastline that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe. Before the war, it was open. Now it\u2019s closed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a big problem, because one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil flows through the strait, making it the most vital shipping lane on the planet.<\/p>\n

It was no secret that this could happen. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that top military officials warned Trump \u201can American attack could prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d But Trump dismissed the risk, according to the Journal\u2019s sources, telling his team that Tehran would surrender before closing the strait \u2014 and that even if they tried, the U.S. military could handle the situation.<\/p>\n

The administration has tried to force Tehran to reopen the strait in various ways: striking Iran\u2019s 30 mine-laying ships; ramping up assaults on Iranian drones and naval vessels in the area; calling on U.S. allies to send warships to escort merchant vessels through the strait; and threatening<\/a> to \u201chit and obliterate\u201d Iran\u2019s power plants unless the blockade ends.<\/p>\n

None of it has worked \u2014 and as a result, Iran is now leaning into its newfound leverage over the world economy. \u201cThe strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you,\u201d Ebrahim Azizi, the chair of the Iranian parliament\u2019s national security commission, wrote in a letter to the American people<\/a> posted Tuesday on social media. \u201cIt will be open for those who comply with the new laws of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Trump has taken to saying that the blockade isn\u2019t his problem because \u201cthe United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait,\u201d as he put it in Wednesday\u2019s speech. Meanwhile, he threatened to decimate Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure unless the strait reopened. Trump now says other countries should \u201ctake the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Journal reported<\/a> that the president has \u201ctold aides he\u2019s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed\u201d because they have \u201cassessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British government said Thursday that military planners from 30 nations will talk next week about securing the Strait of Hormuz for shipping \u2014 but, as U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted, only \u201cafter the fighting has stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasing the price of oil and gas<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, as Trump said on Wednesday, that the U.S. is now the \u201cNo. 1 producer of oil and gas on the planet.\u201d It\u2019s also true that the U.S. imports very little oil and gas via the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

But so far, neither of these advantages has shielded Americans from the war\u2019s biggest economic impact: skyrocketing fuel costs.<\/p>\n

\"Gas<\/p>\n

Prices at a Shell gas station near the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Carson, Calif., on April 1.<\/p>\n

(Jae C. Hong\/AP)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because global energy markets are interconnected \u2014 and \u201cwhen there\u2019s a supply disruption, like there has been for the past month in the Persian Gulf, the price of oil and gas rises everywhere,\u201d as the New York Times recently explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the end of February, oil prices have jumped more than 50% \u2014 from about $71 per barrel before the first wave of attacks on Iran to about $112 per barrel today.<\/p>\n

Oil is refined into gasoline, so gas prices rise along with oil prices. Since Feb. 20, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. has shot up by more than a dollar, from $2.93 to $4.09, according to the American Automobile Association<\/a>. That\u2019s a 40% increase \u2014 the single largest one-month jump in the last three decades.<\/p>\n

How long could these price shocks last? Goldman Sachs analysts recently predicted<\/a> that even if Hormuz fully reopens in April, oil prices would not return to prewar levels until the end of 2026. And if the strait remains closed for just one more month, the price of oil could hover above $110 a barrel through the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

So while Trump dismissed \u201cthe recent rise in gasoline prices here at home\u201d as a \u201cshort-term increase\u201d in Wednesday\u2019s speech, that\u2019s unlikely to be true.<\/p>\n

Raising the cost of living<\/p>\n

When oil and gas get more expensive, everything else tends to follow. Trucks use diesel to transport goods from one place to another; planes and ships use a lot of fuel as well.<\/p>\n

Helium \u2014 a by-product of natural gas \u2014 is essential for manufacturing semiconductors; the war has drastically curtailed global supply. Smartphone<\/a> prices could rise when existing helium stockpiles run low.<\/p>\n

Natural gas is also an essential ingredient in fertilizer \u2014 roughly one-third of which passes through the strait. The longer the war goes on, the harder it will become for farmers to absorb these price shocks; the world\u2019s food supply could take a major hit, and groceries could become significantly more expensive. Plastics (which are made from oil) could become pricier as well.<\/p>\n

Even housing is being affected by the war, because rising energy costs create a risk of rising inflation. Already, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development expects<\/a> U.S. inflation to surge to 4.2% this year, up from 2.6% in 2025. In turn, markets tend to reflect inflation fears in the form of higher interest rates \u2014 which translate into higher borrowing costs for homeowners.<\/p>\n

U.S. mortgage rates fell below 6% before the war started, but they have been climbing steeply ever since. This week, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 6.46% \u2014 the highest it\u2019s been since September.<\/p>\n

Killing Iranian leaders \u2014 but leaving the regime intact<\/p>\n

U.S. and especially Israeli strikes have decimated the upper ranks of the Iranian regime<\/a>, starting with the country\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war.<\/p>\n

Other slain officials include veteran power broker Ali Larijani, intelligence minister Esmail Khatib and Basij paramilitary commander \u200bGholamreza Soleimani.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Trump said that \u201cregime change was not our goal\u201d \u2014 even though on Feb. 28 he told \u201cgreat proud people of Iran\u201d that \u201cnow is the time to seize control of your destiny\u201d and \u201ctake over your government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he insisted in his primetime address that \u201cregime change\u201d had \u201coccurred because of all of their original leaders\u2019 death.\u201d He also argued that \u201cthe new group\u201d of leaders \u201cis less radical and much more reasonable\u201d than their predecessors.<\/p>\n

But experts say that may not be the case. On March 8, Iranian clerics chose the slain ayatollah\u2019s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to take over as supreme leader.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba Khamenei is known for his close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, and his selection signals that the \u201cmuch more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime \u2026 is now in charge,\u201d Vali Nasr, an expert at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Members of the military during a dignified transfer of the remains of six U.S. Army service members who were killed in Kuwait, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., on March 7.<\/p>\n

(Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters)Widening the rift with Europe<\/p>\n

For more than 75 years, NATO<\/a> has held the U.S. and its most powerful European allies together through a shared commitment to protect one another from outside threats.<\/p>\n

But the Wall Street Journal<\/a> reported Wednesday that Trump has been discussing the possibility of leaving NATO with key members of his administration \u2014 and the president confirmed as much in an interview with the British newspaper the Telegraph<\/a> published the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say [it\u2019s] beyond reconsideration,\u201d Trump told the Telegraph. \u201cI was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger.\u201d The president also complained that \u201cthey weren\u2019t there for us\u201d in Iran.<\/p>\n

In response, French President Emmanuel Macron argued<\/a> on Thursday that Trump \u2014 not Europe \u2014 was responsible for undermining the alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you create doubt every day about your commitment, you hollow it out,\u201d Macron said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re serious, we don\u2019t say the opposite of what we said the day before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his first prime-time address since the start of the Iran war, President Trump declared on Wednesday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,801,249869,3,90912,968,219707,210369,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-564728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iranian-territory","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nuclear-weapon","13":"tag-president-trump","14":"tag-revolutionary-guard","15":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}