Trump Vows Intense Iran Strikes Over Next Two to Three Weeks

Standing at the Cross Hall of the White House on Day 32 of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump delivered his first prime-time national address on the war against Iran and pledged to continue striking the country "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks, even as he claimed sweeping victory with no concrete plan to end the conflict.

"Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten," Trump declared on April 1, saying "core strategic objectives are nearing completion." He favorably compared the 32-day campaign to the years-long duration of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and Iraq.

He paired those victory claims with an explicit escalation threat: if no deal is reached, the U.S. would "hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard, and probably simultaneously" and bring Iran "back to the stone ages." Trump dismissed ceasefire proposals, offered no negotiating framework, and set no conditions for ending the campaign beyond his two-to-three-week estimate.

Operation Epic Fury began February 28, 2026, with a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike that reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in its opening salvo. The campaign followed Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, in which the U.S. and Israel struck Iran's Natanz nuclear facility during what became known as the Twelve-Day War. When Iran began rebuilding its nuclear program at a new location, the White House launched the current campaign with four stated objectives: obliterate Iran's missile production, annihilate its navy, sever support for terrorist proxies, and prevent nuclear acquisition.

Early casualty figures placed the death toll at approximately 1,937 in Iran, 24 in Israel, 13 U.S. soldiers, and 27 in Gulf states, numbers that have grown substantially since. The deadliest single recorded incident was a strike on an elementary girls' school in Minab, southeastern Iran, which killed more than 170 people, most of them schoolchildren. Four U.S. Army reservists have been identified among the dead in Kuwait.

Iran's retaliatory strikes have spread across the region. Iranian forces struck the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, hit an Amazon data center in the UAE, and launched attacks in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. At least 16 vessels have been attacked in and around the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman. The effective closure of the Strait, which carries roughly 20 percent of global oil consumption, prompted the head of the International Energy Agency to call it the "greatest global energy security challenge in history." Brent crude surged to approximately $80 to $82 per barrel; U.S. gasoline prices passed $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022. Wall Street analysts and U.S. officials are now considering a scenario in which prolonged disruption pushes oil to $200 per barrel.

The USS Boxer, carrying thousands of Marines, left California and is expected to reach the Persian Gulf in approximately three weeks. Allied support remains fractured: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized U.S.-Israeli action and was publicly rebuked by Trump, while Australia's prime minister said the country "wasn't consulted before this action was undertaken."

Trump closed by insisting: "Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change." As the USS Boxer approaches and Trump's self-imposed deadline ticks down, those assurances will face mounting pressure from a war with no defined endpoint.