Trump Says He Expects Us To Leave Iran In ‘2 Or 3 Weeks’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he expects U.S. forces to withdraw from Iran in “two or three weeks,” signaling a potential end to the month-old military campaign amid skyrocketing energy prices.

The comments came during an executive order signing at the White House, in response to a question about the rising cost of gas. "All I have to do is leave Iran," he said, "and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll come tumbling down.”

Near the start of the hostilities, Trump predicted that the U.S. military campaign would last less than five weeks, a mark it will reach on Saturday.

“We’re hitting them very hard,” the president told reporters. “Last night we knocked out tremendous amounts of missile making facilities … We’re finishing the job, and I think we need two weeks, maybe a few days longer, to do the job.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday night on social media that Trump will give an address to the nation Wednesday evening about "an important update" on Iran.

Pentagon officials earlier on Tuesday had been careful not to set any timeline for the end of Operation Epic Fury, which has involved strikes against more than 11,000 sites in Iran.

“Our job is to ensure that we compel Iran to realize that this new regime, this regime in charge, is in a better place if they make a deal,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters during a morning press conference on the status of the campaign. “And so we'll continue. We want that deal to be accomplished, if at all possible. If not, then we're prepared to continue.”

Trump said he hopes that negotiations will produce a long-term peace for the region, and emphasized that work is still ongoing.

“But it doesn’t matter if they come to the table or not,” he said. “We’ve set them back. It’ll take 15 to 20 years for them to rebuild what we have done to them. They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no telecommunications, they have no anti-aircraft systems. And their leaders are all gone.”

Democratic lawmakers have criticized the administration’s decision to go to war without congressional approval, and questioned whether the president has clear goals for what victory might look like.