President Trump to Deliver National Address on Iran: Key Highlights and Expectations

President Donald Trump is slated to deliver a national address concerning Iran on Wednesday evening.

The announcement was made on Tuesday night by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who hinted at a significant update regarding the situation in Iran.

The address is scheduled to be broadcast during primetime at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

While the White House has yet to share further specifics about the speech, it is anticipated that President Trump will speak from the Oval Office.

This will be Trump’s first major address on the ongoing conflict with Iran since hostilities began late last month.

During a back-and-forth with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Trump said he planned to leave Iran ‘very soon,’ with the original military operation expected to go on no longer than six weeks. 

He estimated ‘two weeks, maybe three’ more weeks of conflict. ‘But we’re finishing the job,’ he said.

US and Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28, hitting the month mark over the weekend. 

President Donald Trump sits at the Resolute Desk on Tuesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday night that the President will give an ‘Address to the Nation’ Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET to give an update on Iran 

A video shared on social media Tuesday shows the aftermath of a bombing campaign in Isfahan, Iran. President Donald Trump said US military intervention in Iran would last two to three more weeks 

‘We’ve knocked out one regime. We knocked out the second regime. Now we have a group of people that’s very, that are very different. They’re much more reasonable, I think much more – much less radicalized,’ Trump said. 

‘We’ve had regime change, we’re dealing with people much more rational,’ he added. 

Top Iranian officials continue to publicly deny that negotiations with the US are ongoing. 

During the Monday White House briefing, Leavitt said not to believe those statements. 

‘Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well,’ she said. ‘What is said publicly is, of course, much different than what’s being communicated to us privately.’ 

Trump has held off on broader strikes of Iranian energy infrastructure as talks have reportedly continued. 

His top warmonger in the Senate, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, stepped back from his calls to escalate military strikes in an X post on Monday. 

Graham encouraged Trump to ‘wind down the war and wind up efforts for a historic peace deal.’ 

A man clear rubble leftover from drone attack on a residential building in Tehran, Iran on Tuesday

Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormux, can be seen from Oman. President Donald Trump floated that US allies will be on their own getting ships through the Strait of Hormuz once the US’s military strikes conclude 

The South Carolina Republican said a goal of the conflict should be to have Saudi Arabia sign the Abraham Accords, which would normalize relations with Israel.

The Abraham Accords were considered a major diplomatic victory during Trump’s first term and administration officials have worked to have other Arab nations join them during Trump 2.0. 

Several Iranian-backed proxies have been responsible for continued tense relations between Israel and the Jewish state’s Arab neighbors, including Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.  

Some of Trump’s main MAGA supporters on Capitol Hill have encouraged the Republican President not to mount a ground invasion in Iran, which would put thousands of US forces in jeopardy. 

Thousands of Marines and other US forces have been deployed to the Middle East in recent days. 

On Tuesday, Trump also floated that US allies could take care of themselves in getting oil ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is blocking, once the military intervention ends.

‘If France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they’ll go up through the Strait, the Hormuz Strait, and they’ll be able to fend for themselves,’ Trump said. ‘I think it will be very safe, actually.’ 

‘But we have nothing to do with that. What happens to the Strait, we’ll have nothing to do with,’ he continued. 

Throughout the conflict, Trump has lambasted allies, particularly NATO members, for not volunteering to help patrol the Strait of Hormuz, a major global oil shipping lane. 

US allies weren’t given a heads-up before the US and Israel launched the joint strikes on Iran, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day. 

Gas prices in the United States have gone up $1 a gallon nationally since the strikes started, according to AAA.