Trump: War with Iran is coming to an end, we will send them back to the Stone Age, where they belong

US President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday night to declare the month-long war in Iran a success and nearing its end, despite an escalating conflict that has caused economic turmoil around the world, damaged transatlantic alliances and dented the president's approval ratings, the Guardian reports.

In a White House address, Trump claimed that America's "little trip" to Iran had almost achieved "all of America's military objectives," but offered little clarity on how he planned to end the conflict in the next "two to three weeks."

"We are on the verge of ending Iran's sinister threat to America and the world," Trump said in a 19-minute speech delivered from the Cross Hall of the White House.

"We have all the cards. They have none," he added.

Acknowledging the economic hardship caused by the conflict, he blamed Iran for the "short-term" rise in fuel prices and insisted that the United States had become energy independent.

Oil prices rose and Asian stock markets fell immediately after Trump's speech, which did little to calm investors worried about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The US president reiterated his call for other countries to help secure the crucial oil passage.

"Grab it and keep it," he said.

Iran has effectively closed the strait since the conflict began, sending oil prices soaring. In the US, the price of fuel topped $4 a gallon this week for the first time since 2022.

Trump did not mention the deadline he set for Iran to reopen the strait.

Listing alleged successes, the US president said that Iran's navy and air force had been destroyed, and that the country was now weak and no longer a threat to the US or the world. However, he added that the US would continue to attack Iran with extreme force in the coming weeks.

"We will take them back to the Stone Age, where they belong," he said, although he also noted that negotiations were ongoing.

Democrats criticized Trump's address as incoherent and as failing to answer the most basic questions of the American people.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump owed Americans more answers about the conflict that has driven up the prices of fuel and basic necessities, “with consequences that will reverberate through the economy for a long time.” Senator Chris Murphy said that “nobody in America, after this speech, knows whether we are escalating or deescalating.”

The war continues, with thousands killed in Iran and across the Middle East since February 28. The attacks hit Tehran on Wednesday morning. Israel said it had carried out two waves of strikes on Tehran and had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Iran continued to retaliate, launching rockets at central Israel and across the region – including a barrage just hours before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

According to estimates by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, at least 1.900 people have been killed and 20.000 wounded in Iran since the start of the war, although exact figures are difficult to confirm.

More than 1.300 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the health ministry. Most of the victims are civilians, while Hezbollah estimates that about 400 of its fighters are among the dead.

In Israel, 19 people have been killed and 515 wounded since the start of the war.

At least 13 American soldiers were killed, while hundreds were wounded.

US forces have struck more than 12.300 targets inside Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury, US Central Command said.

Since the start of the war, the Trump administration has sent mixed and sometimes contradictory signals about U.S. goals. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran's leadership is seeking a ceasefire, and in a social media post on Wednesday, he said that the "new president of the regime" in Iran "just asked" for a ceasefire - a claim Tehran has called "false and baseless."

It is also unclear who Trump spoke to – Iran has a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after he was killed on the first day of US-led airstrikes. Iranian President Masoud Pazekian took office in July 2024.

Before Trump's speech, Pezeskian addressed the American people directly.

“What interests of the American people does this war really serve?” he asked in a letter posted on his X network account.

"Was there any real threat from Iran that would justify this behavior?" he added.

Pezeskian suggested that the US entered the war at the urging of Israel and insisted that Iran's attacks on its neighbors were "a measured response based on legitimate self-defense."

"Is 'America First' really among the priorities of the American government today?" the Iranian president asked.

Further complicating the situation, Trump, in a series of increasingly harsh statements and interviews, criticized America's allies for refusing to join the war and for doing nothing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He did not mention NATO in his speech, but earlier in the day he had said he was "without a doubt" considering withdrawing from the alliance.

He also stated that he was never influenced by the 77-year-old military alliance and that he "always knew it was a paper tiger."

Trump has suggested that a ceasefire would depend on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that US forces could leave Iran "quite quickly." He has left open the possibility of limited strikes inside Iran if necessary.

In his speech, he sought to distinguish this conflict from previous protracted American wars, calling the 32-day military campaign "so powerful, so brilliant."

In the fifth week of the war, the key US objectives remain unclear. Trump has downplayed concerns about Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, arguing that it is too deep underground to be significant. He has previously cited preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons as a primary reason for the war, a claim that analysts have disputed.

Meanwhile, thousands of US troops remain deployed in the region, leaving the possibility of a broader ground operation after weeks of airstrikes on Iran.