President Donald Trump used a familiar turn of phrase during his Wednesday night address on the status of the Iran war.
Yes, the conflict is winding down, he said. But rather than a specific deadline, the president offered a vague assurance that the U.S. would soon achieve its goals.
“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” he said in the speech, which came a month after the White House launched a joint operation against Tehran in February. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
It’s far from the first time the president has suggested that time frame. In fact, he’s offered up a two-week timeline when asked about his executive objectives countless times since returning to the White House last January — and even during his first term in office.
Trump has leaned on the frequent refrain when discussing another major foreign policy objective of his second administration: ending the yearslong Russia-Ukraine war. Last spring, Trump spent months telling reporters he’d divine Russian President Vladimir Putin’s true intentions for the conflict “in about two weeks.”
”I’ll let you know in about two weeks,” he said last May. “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently.”
Nearly a year later, though, the war continues to rage on, and the Trump administration has yet to reach a meaningful deal with Russia and Ukraine to cease hostilities in the region — or to fully isolate Putin.
“I hope people see that when Donald Trump kicks the can down the road a week or two or three weeks down, that’s a sign of weakness, not a sign of strength,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said on Thursday. “He’s doing that because he doesn’t know what he’s actually trying to accomplish. When you have no clear objectives, no clear strategies, you just think about this in terms of, well let’s see where things go from here.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president used the same terminology during his push to acquire Greenland in January. After announcing at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he’d agreed on the framework of a deal over the island, long governed by Denmark, the president told reporters on Air Force One that he’d have more details to offer in “about two weeks.”
Trump has also said he’d need just two weeks to announce deals to end the war between Israel and Hamas that raged in Gaza and a deal to bring TikTok under new ownership.
And he cited the timeline numerous times when asked for a deadline on tariff deals with U.S. trade partners, including China.
Trump’s history of citing the vague deadline goes back to his first term, when he promised to announce health care and infrastructure plans within weeks. The president oftentimes waited months before sharing material details of his domestic policy plans. And in a debate against former Vice President Kamala Harris years after he first teased a health care initiative, Trump said he had “concepts of a plan” on replacing Obamacare.
Trump’s critics have likewise warned that the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran could drag on into yet another “forever war,” with no clear end in sight. The White House has repeatedly said it projects a four- to six-week timeline for the ongoing war — and has repeatedly chided reporters for questioning it.
And while Trump says Iran’s leadership has asked the administration for a ceasefire, Tehran denies it has engaged in negotiations with the U.S.
Iranian officials have remained defiant despite Trump’s bragging about the U.S. military’s might. The country continues attacking U.S. allies across the Middle East, and on Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to target American tech and defense companies operating in the region if the U.S. and Israel continue to target its leadership.
