Since the United States and Israel began striking Iran on Saturday, US President Donald Trump and his administration have offered shifting explanations for why war is necessary — and what the endgame is.
On Tuesday, Trump offered a new rationale, suggesting that Iran was preparing to attack Israel and possibly other Gulf countries, requiring the US – which has thousands of troops and troops in the Middle East – to strike first.
That appeared to contradict suggestions a day earlier that Israel was planning to attack Iran before taking action, requiring the US to act and avoid deadly Iranian retaliation.
Officials expressed the “imminent” threat posed by Iran’s nuclear and weapons programs, despite the fact that strikes last June “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear facilities. Efforts to rebuild those facilities are ongoing, officials said.
While the stated objectives of the war so far appear to be firmly based on the military and security, Trump has clearly called for regime change.
He also alternated between laying out a clear four-week timeline for U.S. operations and saying the operations could last “as long as we want,” and he didn’t pull U.S. troops out of Iran.
“I really hope that the end game is well explained by the president and the administration so that Congress can do what Congress is supposed to do: make the president accountable, which has not been possible until now,” said retired US Major General Randy Manner, who served as the vice president of the United States 3rd Army in Kuwait.
Here’s how the message unfolded from Saturday.
Trump to the Iranian people: ‘America supports you’
In a video message sent early Saturday after the first US and Israeli strike on Iran, Trump said his goal was to “protect the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian government.”
“Its dangerous activities put the United States, our military, our overseas bases and our allies around the world at risk,” he said.
Trump cited decades of attacks by Iran and its terrorist proxies in the region that killed American citizens, as well as failed negotiations to end its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, as reasons, and Iran’s ability to strike European and US bases overseas with long-range ballistic missiles that “could reach the US mainland very soon.”
He said the US would “destroy their ballistic missiles and dismantle their missile industry,” and “destroy their navy” and eliminate Iran’s ability to fund and arm militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“When we’re done, take your government,” he said, addressing the Iranian people.
“Now you have a president who gives you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America supports you with great power and destructive power. Now is the time to take control of your destiny, and release the most prosperous and glorious future within your reach.”
Trump and Israeli officials later confirmed that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strike at his Tehran compound, along with dozens of senior Iranian officials.
“What I want is the freedom of the people,” Trump told The Washington Post in an interview early Saturday after his announcement but before Khamenei’s death was confirmed.
‘Greatest threat to all Americans’
In a video update on Sunday, Trump said US operations in Iran would continue “until all of our objectives are met,” and that the regime posed a threat to the US and Israel.
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He did not say whether that threat was imminent.
“An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a serious threat to all Americans,” he said. “We can’t allow a nation that is raising a terrorist army to have such weapons – we can allow them to rob the world of their evil will. We can’t let it happen.
“These actions are right, and necessary to ensure that the American people will never have to face a bloody terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and multiple threats.”
He also urged Iranians to “take back your country” and said the US “will be there to help.”
‘I found him before he found me’
In a series of one-on-one phone interviews with reporters on Sunday, Trump offered up the changing views and moments of the war.
Speaking to ABC News, the president said of Khamenei, “I got him before he got me,” referring to US allegations of an Iran-backed plot to kill Trump. He added that “most of the candidates” the US had identified to replace the top leader had been killed, and that the operation would continue “as long as we want.”
He told NBC News that the “number one” result the US is looking for is “cutting off their heads, eliminating their entire gang of murderers and criminals. And there are many results. We can do the short version or the long version.”
Trump said the US saw a timeline of “four to five weeks” in an interview with The New York Times.
He suggested that the “perfect situation” would be similar to what happened in Venezuela, where the majority of the regime remains in place and promised to cooperate with the US after the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
‘It is not a war called a regime that changes the war’
In his first public event since the war began, Trump on Monday reiterated many of the goals he laid out in his Saturday video but stopped short of his call for regime change.
“Our goals are clear,” he said. “First, we destroy Iran’s missile capabilities…. Second, we destroy their navy…. Third, we ensure that the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism will never obtain a nuclear weapon…. And finally, we ensure that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist forces outside its borders.”
Trump said the administration had outlined a timeline of four to five weeks “but we have the ability to go longer than that.”
In a separate meeting at the Pentagon with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the “military objective” is clear, destructive, decisive “to destroy the missile threat, to destroy the navy, not nukes.”
“This is not a war to change the regime, but the regime has changed, and the world is better for it,” he said.
Caine said the objectives given to the military “will take some time to achieve, and some will be a difficult and difficult task.”
“Our task is to protect and defend ourselves and, in cooperation with our regional partners, prevent Iran from being able to exercise power outside its borders and be ready to follow the appropriate measures,” he said.
‘We knew Israel’s intentions’
Speaking to reporters on Monday after briefing congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US must act now because Israel will attack Iran, which would retaliate against US strikes in the region.
“There was an imminent threat, and an imminent threat that we knew if Iran was attacked – and we believe it would be – they would come after us immediately,” he said. “We have taken measures to prevent them from causing more damage.
“Obviously, we knew Israel’s intentions and we understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be ready to act because of that. But this had to happen no matter what.”
He denied, however, that the US was forced to strike because of impending Israeli action, and that the US’s main goal was regime change.
“Having said that, we will not pay attention, we will not be sad, and we hope that the people of Iran can overthrow this government and establish a new future for this country,” he said.
“We would like that to happen. But the objective of this campaign is to destroy their ballistic missile capabilities and their military capabilities.”
‘They would attack first’
During an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday, Trump was asked if Israel forced his hand and dragged the US into war with Iran.
“No, I might force their hand,” Trump replied.
“You see, we were negotiating with these madmen, it was my idea that they should attack first, they will attack if we don’t do that.
He added: “Based on the way the talks were going, I think they would attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen, so if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
He later said that Iran is “preparing to attack Israel, it is preparing to attack others.”
Asked what would be the worst case scenario for war, Trump suggested that it would be if “we do this and somebody takes over as a bad guy. That could happen.”
