Trump Set to Declare Iran Military Campaign a Success Wednesday

President Donald Trump declared Operation Epic Fury a decisive American success Wednesday night, but the Strait of Hormuz remained closed, Brent crude sat above $120 a barrel, and Iran's missiles and drones were still flying.

Speaking at 9 p.m. ET, five weeks after the United States and Israel launched coordinated surprise airstrikes on Iran on February 28, Trump restated his two-to-three week timeline for concluding operations. "I had one goal: They will have no nuclear weapon. And that goal has been attained," he told reporters Tuesday, previewing the address. He also told ABC News' Jonathan Karl that "we have complete regime change now" in Iran, citing the deaths of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other political leaders on the war's first day, though he acknowledged regime change was not among his stated objectives when Operation Epic Fury launched.

That contradiction became the speech's central credibility problem. The administration's stated war aims were "no nukes, no navy, and a complete dismantling of their missile program and defense industrial base." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on March 26 the operation was designed to "destroy Iran's offensive military capabilities," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the same day that "every single objective the president clearly laid out on the first night of this operation is being effectuated." Iran continued launching daily barrages.

The most significant loose end was the Strait of Hormuz. Iran declared the waterway closed on March 4, and the International Energy Agency described the fallout as the "largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market." Brent crude surged past $120 per barrel. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on all exports. Oil production from Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE dropped a combined 6.7 million barrels per day by March 10. American gas prices rose more than 30% since the war began, topping $4 a gallon as of Tuesday, according to AAA.

Trump had set the tone for the evening at a private lunch earlier Wednesday. "Tonight, I'm making a little speech at nine o'clock," he told attendees, "and basically I'm gonna tell everybody how great I am, what a great job I've done, what a phenomenal job I've done."

Critics on Capitol Hill focused on a separate omission: congressional authorization. Trump launched Operation Epic Fury using emergency powers, without a vote. Sen. Adam Schiff said Trump was "drawing our country into yet another foreign war that Americans don't want and Congress has not authorised." A CNN poll conducted April 1 found 94% of Democrats and 74% of independents disapproving of the military action; 28% of Republicans joined them. Sixty-eight percent of Americans opposed sending ground troops into Iran, even as Pentagon officials were quietly preparing ground-force options, including a Special Operations mission to seize Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The address invited immediate comparisons to President George W. Bush's May 1, 2003 declaration aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq before years of continued war. Trump had signaled Operation Epic Fury's end at least 12 times since it began, according to Axios, including a March 24 statement that "we've won this war. This war has been won." Wednesday's prime-time address made 13.