President Donald Trump informed reporters on Friday he isn’t thinking about a ceasefire with Iran.
“We could have dialogue, but I don’t want to do a ceasefire,” Trump mentioned from the White House South Lawn earlier than departing for Florida. “You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”
“They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force. They don’t have any equipment,” Trump continued.
In a Truth Social post later Friday afternoon, Trump claimed that the U.S. is “getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”
He additionally asserted that the Strait of Hormuz, the important thing transport lane for a lot of the world’s oil commerce, “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not!”
“If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” Trump wrote within the put up.
Trump’s feedback come practically three weeks into the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which has was a broader regional battle. They sign no fast finish to the battle, which despatched stocks tumbling on Friday and has induced oil prices to soar.
US President Donald Trump speaks to journalists earlier than boarding Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
Earlier Friday, Trump mentioned in a cellphone name with MS Now’s Stephanie Ruhle that the U.S. may finish the war “right now” however that he deliberate to press on with the offensive.
“I think we’ve won,” he later mentioned on the South Lawn. “All they’re doing is blocking up the Strait. But from a military standpoint, they’re finished.”
Iran has successfully blocked off the strait because the begin of the war. Trump has blasted NATO allies in an try and recruit further assist to assist open the strait, which he mentioned once more Friday does not matter to the U.S.
The bulk of the vitality shipments by the strait are destined for Asian markets. But the Dallas Fed, in a report released Friday, mentioned the financial results of the closure will hit world wide, together with within the U.S.
Trump, chatting with reporters Friday, portrayed reopening the strait as easy, supplied different international locations come to assistance from the U.S.
“It’s a simple military maneuver, it’s relatively safe,” he mentioned. “But you need a lot of help in the sense of you need ships, you need volume. And NATO could help us, but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so.” He additionally known as on China and Japan to become involved a day after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with him on the White House.
Trump mentioned earlier this week that he wouldn’t put boots on the bottom in Iran. Multiple information retailers reported Friday that the Pentagon is sending as much as 2,500 Marines to the Middle East — the second such deployment within the final week.
