Donald Trump used a 19-minute national address to declare that the US campaign against Iran had delivered a major military victory, saying American forces would leave in two to three weeks whether or not a deal is reached. The White House said the operation lasted 32 days and struck more than 12,300 targets inside Iran. Trump also paused to note that 13 US service members were killed, while Iran said its own death toll had climbed past 1,700.
White House defines four military objectives
According to the White House, the campaign had four central goals: destroy Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and production capacity, eliminate the Iranian navy, cut off funding and weapons flows to proxy groups, and ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump said in the speech that Iran’s navy no longer existed and its air force had been reduced to ruins, adding that all military objectives were close to completion.
The address also tied the current campaign to earlier action. The source says last year’s “Operation Midnight Hammer” hit multiple Iranian nuclear facilities in what the White House described at the time as a successful denuclearization mission. Intelligence later indicated Iran had restarted parts of its nuclear program elsewhere. Diplomatic talks in Oman took place in February this year but ended without an agreement. On February 28, Trump authorized “Operation Epic Fury,” shifting policy from diplomacy to broad military pressure.
Nuclear endgame remains disputed
Trump said for the first time that he was considering a short ground mission by special forces to seize Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. Vice President JD Vance had already said the main objective was to stop a nuclear weapon, with regime change treated as a side effect rather than the primary goal. That message sits awkwardly next to Trump’s earlier comment to Reuters that he did not care about enriched uranium buried deep underground. The gap has kept questions alive over what Washington would actually count as victory.
A recent CBS poll found that 60% of Americans opposed military action against Iran. Just hours before the speech, Iran’s president released a public letter to the American people in relatively mild language, signaling no desire to widen the conflict and openness to a political path. Even so, the Strait of Hormuz remained blocked, with more than 200 oil tankers still held up, leaving energy markets under pressure.
Bitcoin reacts as de-escalation hopes build
Crypto markets moved quickly on the same night as the speech. Bitcoin traded at $67,950, up 0.2% over 24 hours, and had stayed between $65,000 and $73,000 throughout the conflict. Morgan Stanley also announced that it would open access to spot BTC ETFs for 16,000 financial advisors serving clients tied to $6.2 trillion in assets. The fee was listed at 14 basis points.
Inside Iran, currency stress added another layer to the bitcoin story. The source says the rial’s black-market exchange rate fell to 1.4 million rials per US dollar, the central bank governor resigned, and residents rushed to buy bitcoin as a hedge. JPMorgan said in a report this week that bitcoin had passed the test for its “digital gold” narrative.