According to Wall Street Journal columnists, US President Donald Trump’s decision to address the nation was driven by his advisers’ effort to clearly spell out the aims of the operation in Iran and to ease fears that the conflict could slide into another «forever war».

The newspaper described Trump’s 20-minute statement from the White House as his most direct and unambiguous message to Americans since the start of the operation against Iran. The authors also highlighted the setting of the speech, noting that Trump spoke from the same foyer where, in 2020, he announced the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

On April 2, Trump addressed the nation over the situation surrounding Iran. In that speech, he said Washington was close to achieving its stated objectives and signaled that the United States was prepared to carry out further missile strikes if Iran attempted to rebuild its nuclear facilities.