Updated April 1, 2026 at 2:18 PM EDT
President Trump is set to address the nation at 9 p.m. ET tonight at a critical moment in the war the U.S. is conducting against Iran – his first formal address since the start of the war more than a month ago.
The address comes after weeks of uncertainty over when and how the U.S. could extricate itself from the conflict that began when the U.S. and Israel first began bombing Iran in late February. Since then, the Trump administration has given shifting explanations of its goals in the conflict, and Trump's descriptions of negotiations have frequently been contradicted by Iran.
The president has vacillated between ramping up hostilities with threats against civilian infrastructure - which would go against the Geneva Convention - and claims the war is won and the U.S. will leave the region shortly.
Watch Trump's address here:
The speech also comes hours after President Trump posted that Iran's president has asked for a ceasefire, but that Trump will only agree once the Strait of Hormuz is open. "Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!" he added. Iran's foreign minister called Trump's claim "false and baseless," according to a report on Iranian state television.
Trump has been talking in recent days about finding ways out of the conflict, telling the New York Post on Tuesday, "We're not going to be there too much longer." He told reporters that he now expects the conflict to last two to three weeks longer – which would extend the conflict beyond the administration's initial four to six week timeline.
As a result of the war, Iran has sharply curtailed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping lane where one-fifth of the world's oil supply passes through. This has led to higher oil prices, with gasoline in the U.S. now averaging more than $4 per gallon. That higher cost could raise prices on a wide variety of products. The strait's closure also raised the price of some fertilizers, hurting farmers.
Trump seemed to reverse earlier promises to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, leaving the question of shipping through the strait up to other countries.
"If France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the strait, the Hormuz Strait, they'll go right up there, and they'll be able to fend for themselves. I think it'll be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens with the strait? We're not going to have anything to do with it," he said.
Amid the war, President Trump's approval rating has continued to slide, hitting first-term lows in both the New York Times and Real Clear Politics polling averages.
Some previous objectives laid out by the administration – such as destroying Iran's Navy and missile-building capabilities, as well as preventing it from arming and funding terrorism across the globe – have apparently been at least partially achieved. Others, such as making sure Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon, are less clear.
Trump said Tuesday, "They will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons."
But he later hinted that another president may have to come back to the issue in the future.
"They will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years, and when they already may be, in a long time from now, able to do a nuclear weapon, you'll have a president that will be like me, and that he will go there and he'll knock the hell out of them again, because they cannot have a nuclear weapon," Trump said.
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