President Donald Trump will address the nation Wednesday night as soaring gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and his slumping approval number have become a collective political thorn for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections.
Trump will use the prime-time address to repeat his Tuesday declaration that the U.S. bombardment of Iran should end in two or three weeks, according to a White House official. The official, granted anonymity to be candid, described the speech as an “operational update on the progress of Operation Epic Fury, which is meeting or exceeding all of its benchmarks.”
Trump is expected to tell the nation that the U.S. military has mostly succeeded in “achieving all of its stated goals prior to the operation,” the official said in an email. Those objectives include an ongoing effort to “destroy Iran’s deadly ballistic missiles and production facilities” and “annihilate” its navy, according to the official. What’s more, Trump is expected to describe how Iran’s “terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region” thanks to the U.S.-led actions and to “guarantee” that Tehran can “never” field a nuclear weapon.
