Trump Named Four Objectives of the War With Iran and Said the Operation Is Moving Faster Than Planned

In his first live address since the strikes on Iran, Donald Trump said the initial U.S. plan had envisioned four to five weeks of combat operations, but that the campaign is unfolding “substantially faster” than expected. According to him, the pace of the operation is running ahead of the timetable set by military planners.

Over recent days, Trump has floated various timelines and possible “off ramps,” avoiding precise language on the scale, duration, and ultimate objectives of the large-scale U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign, despite persistent questioning from journalists. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said at a briefing on Monday, March 2, that Operation Epic Fury would take time, but declined to specify any concrete timeframe. “President Trump has complete latitude to talk about how long it may or may not take—four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. Timelines can move up or, conversely, be pushed back,” Hegseth said.

Trump justified the timing of the strikes by saying this was the “last best chance” to eliminate the Iranian threat, adding that a diplomatic deal had collapsed at the very last moment. According to him, he had warned Tehran not to rebuild its nuclear facilities at a new location, but Iranian authorities allegedly ignored the warning and continued work on developing nuclear weapons. “We thought we had a deal, but they walked away from it,” he said.

The president also set out four specific objectives of the war, none of which included the fate of Iran’s regime or any discussion of potential successors the United States might support. First, he said, the U.S. “is destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and this is happening literally every hour, including its ability to produce new missiles.” Second, “we are destroying their navy. We have already taken out 10 ships—they are on the bottom of the sea.” Third, Washington intends “to strip the Iranian regime of the ability to continue arming, financing, and directing terrorist forces beyond its borders.” And finally, as Trump emphasized, the goal is to “ensure that the world’s leading sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”