What to watch as Trump addresses the nation about the Iran war

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House before signing an executive order Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 2026-04-01T21:59:21Z WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Wednesday evening about the war against Iran , a pivotal moment at home and abroad as he seeks to amass extraordinary power to prosecute the military operation and his second-term agenda.

Trump started the day as the first sitting president to show up for a U.S.

Supreme Court hearing, a stunning reach of the executive into the affairs of the judicial branch.

He is preparing to end it with his first primetime address from the White House about a war he launched on his own, bulldozing past Congress .

On an early spring night when many Americans may be looking upward as Artemis II astronauts lift off for NASA’s historic return to the moon, Trump will refocus attention back to him — and to the conflict with Iran that has killed more than a dozen U.S. service members and appears to have no easy exit in sight .

A watchful world awaits Trump’s speech Thousands of additional U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East.

Gulf allies are urging Trump to finish the fight , arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough.

And yet Trump himself predicted the U.S. will be done “within maybe two weeks.” The president’s address to a watchful nation — and world — will offer him an opportunity to outline his next steps: Will he declare victory and signal a readiness to move on from Iran?

Or is the president preparing for a ground invasion by American troops — to retrieve Iran’s enriched uranium or secure the Strait of Hormuz — that could launch the U.S. into another potentially lengthy war in the Middle East?

Trump is fast approaching the 60-day mark when he must seek approval from Congress under the War Powers Act to continue any military operations.

Mixed messages about an escalating war and hopes for diplomacy The Trump administration’s stated goals for the war, and how it ends, have expanded and shifted .

The administration has said it launched the U.S.-Israel campaign on Feb. 28 to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, erode its ballistic missile stock and crush its navy.

The bombing campaign quickly killed Iran’s top leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , but regime change it is not.

Khamenei’s son has been installed as the new leader.

What happened next appeared to throw the

原文链接: AP News