Trump says Iran war could be over soon, warns on Strait of Hormuz oil

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President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. war against Iran could be short-lived, but he also warned that any disruption to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz would trigger a far harsher response. Trump made the remarks to Republican lawmakers at his golf club near Miami, where he said, “We took a little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil,” adding that “you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.” Hours later, he posted on social media that if Iran “does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz,” it would be met by the United States with strikes “TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

The comments landed amid a leadership transition in Iran and continuing strikes across a wide region. Iran selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, a development that investors treated as a sign Iran was “digging in” as the war entered its second week. Oil prices briefly rose to the highest level since 2022 the day after the selection, though prices later fell as U.S. stocks rose on hopes the conflict might not last much longer.

Trump’s exchange of messages also drew an apparent response from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. In Iranian state media, Ali Mohammad Naini, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, said Iran “will determine when the war ends.” The war has already disrupted oil and gas supplies to world markets, sending fuel prices higher in the United States, and it has also prompted people to flee business hubs as bombs hit military bases, government buildings, and oil and water installations.

As fighting continued, Israel reported further strikes and Iran reported heavy attacks on the capital. Dozens of explosions were heard in Tehran in what was described as the heaviest air raid on the city since the war began on Feb. 28, though Iranian media did not report on damage or casualties. Israel said it was conducting a “wide-scale wave of strikes” on the Iranian city of Isfahan as well as on Tehran and in southern Iran, and it said the strikes targeted dozens of infrastructure sites including Revolutionary Guard drone headquarters.

Throughout the day, Israel also issued alerts to the population about incoming missiles from Iran, while Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel on Monday. Trump said the United States was nearing its goal to eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile and its ability to produce and launch them, and the administration has offered shifting rationales and timelines since the start of the conflict. Trump also said in earlier remarks that the United States was moving toward “building a new country,” a comment that appeared to suggest the U.S. could become involved in efforts tied to leadership change in Iran.

Markets and shipping concerns remained a central theme as the war affected energy transport and production. According to the account, Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz had “all but stopped tankers” from using the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried. The report said Iranian drones and missiles targeted oil and gas infrastructure in major producers, and that attacks on merchant ships near the strait had killed at least seven mariners, according to the International Maritime Organization.

In Iran, thousands of people gathered in Tehran and other locations to show allegiance to the new supreme leader, waving flags and chanting slogans including “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” The report described Mojtaba Khamenei as a younger, 56-year-old cleric who had not been seen in public since the war started, and it said he had been considered a potential successor even before the killing of his 86-year-old father, who had ruled since 1989.

Trump told reporters he was “disappointed” that Mojtaba Khamenei was selected and that he preferred “the idea” of a leader drawn from an “internal” group of candidates. The article said the younger Khamenei is viewed as even less compromising than his late father and that, as supreme leader, he has the final say on major policies including Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. It added that Iran’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after U.S. bombing during a prior Israel-Iran war in June, while Iran still has highly enriched uranium.

Alongside the U.S. and regional battlefield developments, the report also described diplomatic engagement involving Russia. Trump had a call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin “voiced a few ideas regarding a quick political and diplomatic settlement” after conversations with Gulf leaders and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The cluster also reported that regional states continued to warn about drone and missile attacks, including Saudi Arabia’s complaint after a drone strike on its Shaybah oil field and the United Arab Emirates’ statements after missile interceptions over Abu Dhabi and a drone attack on the UAE consulate in Iraq’s Kurdish region.

At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon, and 11 in Israel, according to officials cited in the report, and it said seven U.S. service members have been killed. Trump told reporters that family members of the soldiers told him during the transfer of their remains over the weekend in Dover, Delaware, “Make sure you win, sir.”