On Apr. 1, 2026, President Donald Trump delivered his Address to the Nation. It has been one month since “Operation Epic Fury”, the war with Iran, has begun.

1. Iran’s military is inactive.
   1. He claims “Iran’s Navy is gone” and their “air forces in ruins…Their leaders, most of them, terrorists, regime they led are now dead..Their weapons, factories, and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces: very few of them left.” Trump claiming that Iran’s military, air force, and leadership is destroyed is a result of “Operation Epic Fury.” While his administration says there have been lots of victories and major damage to Iranian infrastructure, independent verification is unavailable, and U.S. intelligence reports have, at times, provided conflicting data regarding the actual extent of the damage to Iranian weapons and manufacturing capabilities. 
2.  Alliance with Venezuela
   1. Since taking over Venezuela “in a matter of minutes” (per Trump), we are now apprentaly working with them. Trump calls it “true sense joint venture partners.” and “we’re getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas”, yet we are yet to see positive change at the pump. Gas prices continue to rise. A few months ago, $2.67 was a normal price to see for regular unleaded gas, but now PA can range anywhere from $4.19 to $4.61.
3. The U.S. no longer relies on the Middle East
   1. Trump claims we are now “completely independent from the middle east…we don’t need their oil. We don’t need anything they have.” This is a grave generalization. According to Yahoo Finance, the middle east exports much of refined gasoline and the U.S. is an importer of this gasoline. Even though Trump’s main concern is gasoline, his generalization completely looks over other imports that the U.S. relies on that come from the middle east. For example, helium and fertilizer.
4. Iran’s regime killed protestors
   1. Trump claims that 45,000 protestors in Iran were killed by their own regime. This is a complete assumption by the President and is unverified. It can be inferred that this is an exaggeration and on the higher end of the numbers. Iranian communication and media has been highly censored, family reports are being suppressed, and the actual death toll has not been taken. The Iranian government has spoken and said that 3,000 of their own people have died, though critics express this is an extreme understatement.
5. JCPOA was a settlement
   1. 1. “And then very importantly, I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal: a disaster. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash.” The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a deal between Iran and the U.S., U.K., France, China, Russia, and Germany. It decreased Iran’s uranium enrichment and stockpiles in exchange for significant sanctions relief. Obama did give $1.7 billion to Iran to settle the repetitive conflicts after the Iranian revolution. The U.S. was supposed to deliver military weapons to Iran after they paid for it, but never did. Trump emphasises the fact the Obama gave Iran the money is cash. “Green green cash…All the cash they [U.S. banks] had.” However there is reasoning as to why the money had to be paid in cash. This type of payment could not be transferred electronically because of the U.S.’ strict sanctions. They excluded Iran from the global banking system. This money was a settlement, not the U.S. attempting to gain Iran’s “respect and loyalty” back. It was money that the U.S. owed to Iran for wrongly cheating them out of military equipment.
6. Operation Epic Fury is “over.”
   1. Trump’s main goal was to rid Iran of having access to a nuclear weapon. He claims that since he was able to complete this task, the war, and Operation Epic Fury, is over. He says Iran produced missiles and weapons and the U.S.’ military “took them all out.” 

The second half of his speech included important topics such as gas prices, furthering weapons, and U.S. economy. He also expressed hope that the war will be over soon. Trump says the military is going to “finish the job soon.”

1. Gas Prices
   1. He mentions the main concern of most U.S. citizens around the 20 minutes mark of his speech. “Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home.” He says this increase derives from the terror attacks that Iran has done on commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries. Although a war goes both ways, a good portion of the issues stem from Iran like Trump said. Because the U.S. and Israel attacked the Strait of Hormuz–a channel that ships 20% of the world’s oil–Iran has effectively closed it off.
2. Iran’s Nuclear Weapons
   1. “Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they’ll use them quickly. It will lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine.” Trump expresses his utter dissatisfaction with Iran having access to nuclear weapons. However, this is conflictive because nine countries already have thousands of nuclear arsenals–the U.S. being one of them. Russia has 5459, the U.S. has 5277, China has 600, Frace has 290, the U.K. has 225, India has 180, Pakistan has 170, Israel has 90, and North Korea has 50. It appears that Trump is uncomfortable with Iran having nuclear arms becase they are a severly destablizing threat in the middle east and a threat to our allies.
3. The U.S. Economy
   1. “We built the strongest economy in history.” Actually, according to Fox Business, a typical right-wing biased news station, a recession could be underway.  They reported that two consecutive months of negative GDP growth is likely because the economic growth is slowing at a greater-than-normal rate, plus risks of economic downturns are rising. Unfortunately, Trump is exaggerating by assuming his economy has been or will be the best in history.
4. The U.S. is undergoing no inflation
   1. “…Made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far with no inflation.” This is a lie as well. The U.S. economy has been growing through grossly obvious inflation. Consumer Price Index has been increasing by 2.4 percent (ended in Jan 2026). The Federal Reserve’s target is about 2 percent CPI, so it is lower than the long-term inflation of 3.27 percent with former presidents, but still above the goal. Therefore, there is inflation in the U.S.
5. Production of Oil and Gas
   1. “Under my leadership, we are the number one producer of oil and gas on the planet.” He is correct in boasting that the U.S. is the number one producer of oil and gas. However, this has not changed since 2009 and 2013. So, his leadership is not the reason why the U.S. is the top manufacturer, but he did keep it #1.“Thanks to the Trump Administration, we produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.” This is also true. The U.S. produces 24 million barrels of oil per day. Saudi Arabia produces 10.9 million and Russia 10.5 million. The U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia in gas production in 2009 and 2010; therefore, it was not under his presidency that the U.S. outproduced two countries combined, but it is true that we are.
6. Improvements in the U.S. economy
   1. “Our economy is strong and improving by the day, and it will soon be roaring back like never before.” Apparently, most Americans don’t agree. “President Donald Trump’s approval rating sinks to fresh second-term lows,” says Newsweek. Will getting out of the Iran war help Trump’s approval ratings improve? 
7. Further Action
   1. “We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages.” Trump is referring to bombing their electric generating plants simultaneously, as said in his Address to the Nation and TruthSocial. However, he posted on his TruthSocial on Apr. 7, “…they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.” The President continues to hold off the war week-by-week basis, which is probably an attempt to restore citizen’s faith of the U.S.

All in all, President Trump has agreed to an indefinite two-week ceasefire with Iran in exchange for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Through this deal, Trump aims to lower oil prices and stabilize the economy. Iran insists that this ceasefire requires Israel to stop bombing Lebanon, but the U.S. and Israel do not want to do so. The deal seems unsuccessful if Iran, U.S., Lebanon, and Israel cannot come to an agreement.