The live address, scheduled for 9 p.m. EST, is an “important update” on Operation Epic Fury, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
In a comment to AFN, a White House official said the speech will cover the success of the military campaign that is “meeting or exceeding” its goals: Destroying Iran’s ballistic missiles and related production facilities; “annihilate” Iran’s navy; ensure Iran’s terrorist proxies can’t “destabilize” the Middle East; and “guarantee” Iran will never obtain a nuclear bomb.
The official told AFN the president will also repeat what he told reporters Tuesday, which is he believes Epic Fury will wrap up in two to three weeks.
“We’ll be leaving very soon,” Trump told reporters.
What is left unstated in that White House comment, however, is if President Trump will address other looming issues: safe passage for oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz; a ground invasion; the future of NATO; and if the U.S. will topple the Khamenei regime and its Supreme Council of ayatollahs.
So a worldwide audience – nervous Iranians, nervous U.S. Marines, and nervous NATO generals – will be waiting to see if they get a mention in an Oval Office address expected to last 20 minutes.
Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker, told the “Washington Watch” program the use of slow and vulnerable B-52 bombers over Iran demonstrates the U.S. Air Force has established air superiority.
Perry, a retired National Guard brigadier general, said U.S. adversaries China and Russia know that means the Pentagon has decimated Iran’s air defense capabilities.
The interview shifted from military success to a more delicate topic of international policies when show host Tony Perkins questioned a quick exit because the American public is angered over gas prices.
“If we don't finish the work that we started there, the end could be much worse than the former,” Perkins, who rarely shares his own opinions, cautioned his audience and the GOP lawmaker.
Perkins also commented that he had sent a personal letter to President Trump urging him to “stay the course” and ignore polling that could sway his plans.
Without jumping into that political debate, the GOP congressman said the U.S. has been the perpetual victim of Iran and its radical Islamic regime for nearly 50 years.
“Every single president has said that they wanted to deal with Iran and that Iran needed to be dealt with. This is the only one that's been willing to do it,” Perry commented.
