Updated April 1, 2026 — CBS News
President Trump will deliver a prime-time address Wednesday night to provide what the White House called an ‘important update on Iran,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on X. The speech is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET; no further details were released.
The address comes amid a monthlong exchange of hostilities with Iran. Publicly, Trump has said he hopes the conflict will end in weeks, telling reporters he expects it to be over in ‘two weeks, maybe three’ and asserting that U.S. forces have largely accomplished the core objective of degrading Iran’s military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Tuesday that the ‘upcoming days will be decisive.’
Trump has also suggested that countries relying on Middle East petroleum should help secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iranian actions have effectively disrupted. In an interview with CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, the president said he is not ready to withdraw U.S. forces from efforts to reopen the strait ‘quite yet,’ but said other countries need to ‘come in and take care of it.’ Iran denies direct negotiations with Washington while confirming message exchanges through intermediaries.
At the same time, hundreds of U.S. special operations troops, including Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, along with Marines and paratroopers, are now in the Middle East, expanding options for a possible escalation. Earlier this month Pentagon officials began preparing plans for deploying ground forces. The administration has also considered a high‑risk special operations mission to seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, though no public decision has been announced.
There has been public discussion of possible strikes or operations against Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil-export terminal. On his Truth Social platform, the president warned that if a deal is not reached and the strait is not reopened, the United States could target Iran’s electric generating plants, oil infrastructure and Kharg Island, and possibly desalination facilities — assets he said have not yet been struck.