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By Gabe Whisnant
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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the war with Iran had already been decided in America's favor.
He told supporters in Hebron, Kentucky, that the conflict was effectively over almost as soon as it began. Trump said U.S. forces knocked out 58 Iranian naval vessels and eliminated the country’s air force.
“Let me say we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won, in the first hour it was over, but we won,” the president said.
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He added, “We don’t want to leave early, do we? We’ve got to finish the job."
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Why It Matters
Trump has sent mixed signals about the scope and planned duration of the conflict, at various times suggesting the campaign was ahead of schedule, could last several weeks, was already won but incomplete or amounted to an "excursion" rather than a full‑scale war.
Americans are divided along party lines on U.S. military action against Iran, according to polls conducted since the war began, with most polls showing opposition is higher than support.
What To Know
The U.S. air campaign in Iran entered its 12th day as American and Israeli forces continued strikes across the country. A U.S. military commander said artificial intelligence has helped identify and hit more than 5,500 targets. An Israeli intelligence assessment said Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded early in the conflict.
Witnesses in Tehran said they heard loud airstrikes and heavy anti‑aircraft fire Wednesday, with plumes of smoke rising over the city and gray dust settling across neighborhoods. They described the air as smelling of burned powder and gasoline. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The Israeli military has also continued strikes against Iran and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the fighting has displaced more than 800,000 people.
Trump also said Wednesday in Kentucky that Iran did not have “nuclear potential” following U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country’s nuclear program in the summer, while also saying Iran later resumed activity that prompted the current military campaign.
Speaking on the earlier strikes, Trump said, “We obliterated it. They don’t have nuclear potential.” He added, without providing details, that Iran “started again,” saying, “That’s why we got to finish it. We don’t want to go back every two years.”
Trump and other administration officials have said in recent days that Iran was weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon, arguments they have used to justify renewed strikes, even as they maintain that the summer’s attacks destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The president's remarks come as Iran fired on commercial ships Wednesday and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating its effort to choke off traffic through the oil‑rich Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, sirens sounded and explosions were heard early Thursday in Jerusalem, while alerts also blared in northern Israel, where Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones.
Global energy concerns mounted and U.S. and Israeli airstrikes continued to pound the Islamic Republic.
Trump said Wednesday he would tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to bring down oil prices, without specifying how much crude would be released.
Asked during an interview with WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati about using the reserve, Trump said, “Well, we’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up.” He added, “Right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”
Trump did not provide details on the size or timing of a potential release. He has frequently criticized the administration of former President Joe Biden for drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gasoline prices.
What People Are Saying
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Wednesday that Iran was ready to continue negotiations when the U.S. and Israel launched “a premeditated, deliberate attack” on February 28: “There are no negotiations, although Iran expressed willingness for negotiations,” he told reporters after the Security Council rejected a Russian-drafted resolution on the war.
Nonetheless, Nebenzia said, “We are ready to help to get out of the dire situation the whole region and the United States got itself into.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said a resolution adopted by the Security Council on Wednesday, which does not mention that U.S. and Israeli strikes launched the war, “deliberately ignores the root causes of the current crisis.”
“The very purpose of this biased and politically motivated text, which was pushed by Israeli regime and the United States, is clear: to reverse the roles and positions of victim and aggressor,” Iravani told the 15-member council.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Tehran lied during the Security Council session on its actions in the region: “These (Iran) attacks were so brutal and so indiscriminate, as Iran shoots in all directions, that nations that previously had serious disagreements have now joined together. They’ve now spoken as one voice.”
What Happens Next
Iran’s response to the Israeli and American bombardment that began nearly two weeks ago has disrupted key trade routes, constrained shipments of fuel and fertilizer from the Gulf and raised risks of air travel through one of the world’s busiest corridors. With neither side signaling a retreat, both appear determined to outlast the other.
Update: 3/11/26, 7:18 p.m. ET: This article was updated with new information and remarks.
This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
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