President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced in a prime-time address that America's "core strategic objectives" were "nearing completion" and he planned to escalate attacks on the regime for the next 2-3 weeks in a bid to force Tehran's capitulation.

"Our objectives are very simple and clear: we are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders," Trump declared. "That means eliminating Iran's Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base. We've done all of it."

"These actions will cripple Iran military crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny," Trump said. "I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion."

"We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks, we're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong," he added.

He further characterized the conflict as "a true investment in your children and your grandchildren's future."

He also explained his decision to wage war against Iran, asserting that he had launched the first strikes on Iran to keep his vow to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words, if you're not willing to take action when the time comes," he declared, during a prime-time address to the nation.

He further recounted the myriad violence against Americans perpetrated by Iran over the past 47 years.

"From the very first day I announced my campaign for president in 2015 I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said. "This fanatical regime has been chanting, 'Death to America, Death to Israel' for 47 years."

"For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat," he added. "The most violent and thuggish regime on Earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield. I will never let that happen."

"My first preference was always the path of diplomacy at the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement," he added. Trump also indicated that Iran had simply relocated their nuclear facilities following the June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer and indicated that he viewed that move as indication the country would never abandon their nuclear ambitions.

He further touted what he called "swift, decisive, overwhelming victories" against Iran in the ongoing conflict.

"Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large-scale losses in a matter of weeks," Trump declared. "Our enemies are losing. And America, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning and now winning bigger than ever before."

The Iran war began in late February when a joint U.S.-Israeli strike targeted Iranian military infrastructure and took out its senior leadership, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump initially set the timeline for the war to end within 4–5 weeks.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.