Updated on: April 1, 2026 / 12:12 AM EDT / CBS News
President Trump plans a prime-time address Wednesday night to “provide an important update on Iran,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on X. The address is set for 9 p.m. ET; Leavitt gave no further details.
The speech comes amid a monthlong conflict with Iran as Trump publicly signals he seeks a deal to end the war in weeks while privately weighing whether to employ ground forces, CBS News has reported. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the “upcoming days will be decisive.”
Trump told reporters he expects the war with Iran to end in “two weeks, maybe three,” saying the U.S. has largely achieved its core objective of degrading Iran’s military. He has also suggested that countries dependent on Middle Eastern petroleum should take responsibility for securing passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively shut down.
In an interview with CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, the president said he isn’t ready to withdraw U.S. forces from efforts to reopen the Strait “quite yet,” but said other countries “have to come in and take care of it.” He has expressed some optimism about the state of U.S.-Iran communications; Iran denies direct negotiations but confirms message exchanges via mediators.
At the same time, hundreds of U.S. Special Operations troops — including Navy SEALs and Army Rangers — plus Marines and paratroopers are now in the Middle East, giving options to potentially expand the conflict. Earlier this month, Pentagon officials began preparing options for deploying ground forces. The administration has considered a high-risk Special Operations mission to seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, though no decision had been made publicly.
There has also been public discussion about possible operations against Kharg Island, which handles most of Iran’s oil exports. On Truth Social, the president warned that if a deal is not reached and the Strait is not reopened, the U.S. could “conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” which he said have not yet been targeted.