Trump didn’t mention a ground war… a national address with nothing new [Washington Now by Lee Sang-eun]

An address with no mention of a ground war or a postwar plan

Handing off keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to user countries

Stresses “U.S. energy independence” without addressing allies’ situations

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a roughly 20-minute national address on the evening of the 1st (local time) that the United States has “achieved energy independence with no reliance on the Middle East, but we are there to help our allies.”

In the address, Trump did not lay out specific messages on whether to deploy ground forces or whether to end the war. Instead, he explained why it was necessary to attack Iran and emphasized that it has delivered successful results so far.

Calling it “a pivotal moment for the safety and security of our nation and the free world,” Trump said “the command-and-control system of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is collapsing in real time.” He also noted that the Iranian regime has for decades chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and that it and its proxies have killed U.S. troops, Israeli citizens and 45,000 of its own people. He stressed the justification, saying, “It is an unacceptable threat for these terrorists to possess nuclear weapons.”

He also said of his decision to scrap nuclear negotiations with Iran that it meant “ending Barack Hussein Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal,” claiming that “(former President Obama) tried to buy Iran’s favor by flying in cash, but the policy ended in failure.”

On the recent rise in oil prices, Trump said it was “temporary” and “largely due to Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels,” adding that “the U.S. economy is very strong and fully prepared to absorb this situation.” Saying, “We are the world’s largest producer of oil and gas and have achieved energy independence,” he also said cooperation with Venezuela has further strengthened that independence. He did not mention that allies such as South Korea and Japan are suffering severe disruptions to energy supplies due to the war.

He signaled additional attacks in the coming weeks. “The United States will launch a major offensive against Iran over the next 2 to 3 weeks,” Trump said, adding, “We will send Iran back to the Stone Age.”

He continued, “Iran has been severely weakened militarily, economically and strategically. The hardest phase is already behind us,” warning, “If no agreement is reached, we are prepared to take further action targeting key infrastructure.”

“This operation has gone on for a little over a month, but it has already fundamentally altered the regional balance of power,” Trump said. “When it is all over, America will be safer, stronger and more prosperous than ever.”

Below is the full text of President Trump’s address.

My fellow Americans, good evening. First, I want to offer my congratulations to NASA and to our brave astronauts. I would like to congratulate them on the success of Artemis 2. They will pass the Moon and return to Earth, and as a crewed spacecraft it will make a long-distance flight that no one has ever achieved before.

I believe God is congratulating our wonderful astronauts.

Our U.S. military has launched “Operation Epic Fury.” In doing so, we attacked Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. Over the past four weeks, our forces have won swift and overwhelming victories on the battlefield—victories of a scale never seen before. The Iranian navy is now gone. The air force has taken a major blow as well.

Most of Iran’s leaders were terrorists. They are now dead. The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been killed at this very moment. Iran’s missile and drone launch capabilities have been greatly reduced, and rocket launchers and missile factories have been shattered. There has been no war in which an enemy has suffered such a large-scale defeat.

America’s enemies have kept losing over the past five years, just as they did during my term. We are winning bigger than ever. I want to thank our service members for what they are doing in this situation. Our military also achieved major success in Venezuela through a swift operation. Since I began rebuilding our military in my first term, it has become the most powerful force in the world. Now our military has an enormous level of crude oil production as well. We have become the No. 2 producer in the world. We no longer depend on Middle Eastern oil.

But we do not have to be in the Middle East, although we are operating there to provide help. Today I will tell you about what our troops have achieved and explain why Operation Epic Fury was necessary for America’s safety and the security of the free world.

From the first day I ran for president, I said I would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. For 47 years, this evil regime of Iran has chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Iran’s proxies killed 241 Americans in the Beirut bombing. They killed many Americans with roadside bombs. And they carried out many other evil attacks. They carried out the brutal October 7 attack on Israel. It was an unprecedented assault.

The Iranian regime has also recently massacred 45,000 of its own people. Those 45,000 were merely protesting. But for these terrorists to have nuclear weapons is something we cannot accept. We can never allow a regime that commits such mass slaughter to defend itself with nuclear weapons. It was something that prior presidents should never have allowed. This has been going on for 47 years, and it should have been resolved long before I took office.

I have worked to address this problem over two terms. Among other things, I eliminated General Soleimani. He was a truly terrible figure. If Soleimani had not been taken out, today would be very different. But the fact that America would have won would not have changed. And I ended Hussein Hussein and Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal. The United States provided Iran with $1.7 billion in cash at that time—hard cash.

They flew in cash to try to buy Iran’s favor, but the policy ended in failure. In the end, Iran continued its nuclear development. If Obama’s nuclear deal had continued, Iran would have possessed weapons of mass destruction. Iran would have had nuclear weapons years ago, and the situation would be very different from today. We would have witnessed the end of Israel and the end of the Middle East.

If I had not ended that disastrous deal, things would be different now, and I am very proud of that decision. I made a decision that no president had been able to make. I corrected the mistakes of past presidents. My ultimate goal was to seek a diplomatic solution. While Iran relentlessly pursued nuclear weapons, and in the midst of attempting negotiations, I carried out Operation Midnight Hammer and struck Iran’s nuclear facilities on a large scale. The B-2 bomber demonstrated its might and carried out its mission very successfully.

As a result, we devastated Iran’s nuclear facilities. After that, the Iranian regime tried to restart its nuclear program in a completely different location—showing that Iran had no intention of abandoning its nuclear ambitions. Not only that, Iran was rapidly increasing its stockpile of conventional weapons and ballistic missiles. Before long, it was developing ballistic missiles capable of striking Europe, the U.S. homeland and every region of the world. Iran’s strategy is crystal clear: to secure as many missiles as possible. Iran’s goal was to obtain the longest-range missiles. And Iran possessed weapons beyond anything imaginable, but the United States defeated them through military operations.

Iran kept trying to develop nuclear weapons without stopping and sought to acquire nuclear weapons at a level we had never seen. The threat reached the threshold, and for years there were predictions that Iran could not obtain nuclear weapons, but you know what happens if you do not make a bold decision when it is necessary. The goal of Epic Fury, Operation Epic Fury, was clear: to systematically neutralize Iran’s ability to threaten the United States. It was to block Iran’s ability to project force beyond its borders.

Thanks to Operation Epic Fury, Iran’s navy has been wiped out. Iran’s air power and missile forces have been weakened more than ever. Iran’s industrial facilities have also been greatly degraded. Iran’s navy and air force have been destroyed, and now Iran’s missiles have been shot down or Iran has expended the missiles it possessed. We were able to neutralize Iran’s military power, cut off support to Iran’s proxies, and degrade Iran’s nuclear development capability. Such military achievements have never been seen even once. Everyone is praising it without reservation. In that regard, I want to say today that we have achieved our strategic objectives. It is an accomplishment worth celebrating.

However, in the course of this, 13 American service members tragically died. But because of their sacrifice, we will never again see Iran’s nuclear threat. I personally met the remains as they were returned at Dover Air Force Base, and I met the families. As I paid tribute to our fallen service members, I pledged to complete the mission. The families who lost their loved ones told me I must complete the mission no matter what. And we will complete that mission swiftly and perfectly.

I want to thank our allies in the Middle East—Israel and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. Our allies did a great job, and I do not want these allies to be hit or harmed. Many Americans have recently been concerned about gasoline prices at home. This short-term price increase was due to the Iranian regime’s terror attacks—because it attacked neighboring countries. This once again shows that Iran can never be trusted if it ever has nuclear weapons. Iran would have inflicted far greater economic damage. We had to fight back against this.

The U.S. economy is now the strongest it has ever been. When I began my term, America was essentially dead and in a state of severe damage. The previous administration truly wrecked America. Inflation was also very severe. But since I took office, I brought inflation under control, and the stock market has hit record highs 53 times. We cannot imagine what would happen if Iran were to become nuclear-armed.

I am now producing vast amounts of oil and gas thanks to an aggressive oil production policy. We have become the country that produces the most oil and gas in the world. Thanks to the policies of the Trump administration, we produce more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. Think about that. And this crude output will soon be even higher. No country in the world will be able to catch up with us. U.S. oil imports are hardly conducted through the Strait of Hormuz, and they will not be needed in the future. That was true in the past, and it will not be needed going forward.

We have completely destroyed Iran—militarily, economically, and in every other way. Now, among the countries of the world that import oil through the Strait of Hormuz, those countries will have to protect it themselves. And they will have to value the Strait of Hormuz. We may be able to help, but the countries that rely on the Strait of Hormuz must solve it themselves. I asked many countries to participate in this decapitation operation, but many did not, so we had to do it alone. But the United States does not rely on the Strait of Hormuz and can procure oil on its own.

Now other countries will have to come to the Strait of Hormuz and take control of and protect the strait themselves. Of course, because Iran’s military has been completely destroyed, that will be a very easy task now. The Strait of Hormuz will inevitably open naturally. Iran also wants to sell oil, because it has to in order to rebuild. If that happens, the stock market will recover quickly and crude oil prices will fall quickly. Stocks fell a bit, but they have risen over the past few days. And they are performing better than I thought.

Now Iran must stop this terrible threat. We are now delivering more tax cuts and providing support to more people than ever before, and that recovery is being accelerated further through the Big Beautiful bill. From the beginning, I said that through Operation Epic Fury we would achieve our objectives. Those objectives have been fully achieved. All military objectives of the U.S. forces will soon be achieved quickly.

The United States will launch a major offensive against Iran over the next 2 to 3 weeks. We will send Iran back to the Stone Age. Even at this moment, negotiations are taking place between the two countries. Regime change was not America’s goal. However, in practical terms, regime change has occurred in Iran because most of Iran’s top leadership has died. Iran’s new leadership is far more moderate and rational. But we have not yet reached an agreement, and we will strike all of Iran’s important targets. We will strike Iran’s essential infrastructure, including power plants. We have not struck oil facilities yet even though they are easy targets, because striking oil facilities would mean Iran’s collapse. But if we strike Iran’s oil facilities, Iran will meet its end.

Iran’s air power has been wiped out, and its radar has been disabled. America’s military power is unrivaled. It will take Iran months just to repair the nuclear facilities struck by the B-2 bomber. And we are monitoring Iran’s nuclear facilities by deploying intelligence assets in a focused manner. If we see even the slightest sign that Iran is resuming nuclear development, we will strike immediately. Iran has no negotiating cards, and the United States holds all the negotiating cards.

In broad terms, the United States is viewing this war.

The United States entered World War I, and participation continued for one year—1 year, 7 months and 5 days. World War II lasted 3 years, 8 months and 25 days. The Korean War lasted 3 years, 1 month and 2 days. The Vietnam War continued for 19 years, 5 months and 29 days. The Iraq War continued for 8 years, 8 months and 28 days. The current military operation was a war that displayed the world’s strongest U.S. power for 32 days, showcasing America’s formidable military. Iran has been completely neutralized and can now, in effect, no longer threaten Israel. It will not be able to threaten the Middle East either. This is an investment for future generations.

The entire world is watching the situation. Everyone is watching Iran closely. America’s greatest strength comes from its military power. I can now boldly say that we will finally be free from the attacks of the evil Iranian regime and from Iran’s nuclear blackmail. And we will soon put an end to Iran’s evil threats against America. The world is watching, and when the war ends, the United States will be safer, stronger and more prosperous than ever. God bless all of our service members. God bless America. Thank you very much.

Washington=Lee Sang-eun, correspondent / Sohn Joo-hyung, reporter selee@hankyung.com