With his approval rating hitting new lows and Americans feeling a pinch from soaring oil prices, Trump offered a retroactive explanation on why he joined Israel in the attack launched on Feb 28.
Standing before American flags, Trump delivered the type of speech most presidents would offer at the start of a conflict.
On Feb 28, he released a video in which he was wearing a baseball cap and no tie instead.
In his Wednesday address, Trump said the US was aiming to crush Iran’s military, end the clerical state’s support for regional armed groups and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear bomb – a prospect that the United Nations nuclear watchdog and many observers say was not imminent.
“I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” Trump said in a 19-minute speech.
Israel, on the first day of the conflict, killed Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Trump boasted how “their leaders – most of them” in the Islamic Republic are dead.
But Iran has also responded by taking control over the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway out of the Gulf for one-fifth of the world’s oil, which was open before the war.