Trump emphasized in the speech, which contained no direct news and was largely a repetition of his earlier remarks, that the imminent attack on Iran would be decisive.
"We're going to hit them extremely hard in the next two to three weeks. We're going to take them back to the Stone Age where they belong," Trump said in the televised speech - an image he had previously also given on Truth Social.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, initiating the ongoing war. The motive for starting the war has been questioned, but Trump says Iran's attempts to develop nuclear weapons posed a direct threat to the country.
"We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America," he said in the speech, referring to attacks on Iran's navy, air force, missile program and nuclear program.
Red flag
Opinion polls in the American media indicate that Democrats and independent voters are primarily critical of the Iran war. Support is significantly higher among Trump's loyal MAGA voters. However, the fact that gasoline prices are rising sharply has been described as a red flag for Donald Trump, especially since there are only seven months left until the midterm elections for Congress. In the speech, he tried to calm the critics.
"We produce more oil and gas than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined."
However, the speech did not seem to have had any calming effect - oil prices are rising while stock markets in Asia are falling sharply.
Trump has previously threatened to strike at energy infrastructure in Iran, and in last night's speech, there were further threats against both power plants and oil production.
"We haven't struck their oil, even though it's the easiest target of all. We could do that, and then it would be gone."
“Just take” the Strait of Hormuz
Trump said an attack on Iran's oil would make it "impossible" to rebuild the country after the war.
Trump also repeated the message that several countries should "show courage" and commit to securing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which is very important for global oil trade. This time he singled out China, Japan and South Korea.
"Just take it and protect it," he said of the strait.
