President Trump said Tuesday he expects the war with Iran to conclude in the near term, declaring the United States is “obliterating the [expletive] out of them” and predicting the Strait of Hormuz will reopen without American military intervention.

“We’re not going to be there too much longer,” Trump said in a phone interview with The New York Post. “It’s a total obliteration. We won’t have to be there much longer — but we have more work to do in terms of killing their offensive capability.”

The remarks came shortly after a morning Pentagon briefing disclosing that 11,000 targets have been struck over 32 days of fighting.

Markets responded immediately to Trump saying the war would end soon: the Dow closed up more than 1,100 points, the Nasdaq gained nearly 800 points, and the S&P 500 rose 185 points.

Trump struck a similarly bullish tone on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has kept closed for more than a month. Rather than committing U.S. forces to reopen the waterway — through which roughly a fifth of global oil exports flow — Trump said the task should fall to other nations.

“My attitude is, I’ve obliterated the country. They have no strength left, and let the countries that are using the strait, let them go and open it,” he said. “When we leave, the strait will automatically open.”

Pressed on a Wall Street Journal report suggesting he was prepared to end the war without reopening the strait, Trump demurred. “My sole function was to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has floated levying tolls on ships transiting the strait as a bid to assert continued control, though Malaysia said Tuesday its vessels are now passing through without paying. Trump has set an April 6 deadline for Iran to open the waterway or face U.S. airstrikes on power plants.

Trump spoke after posting video to social media of large explosions near Isfahan — a major Iranian city near which a key nuclear facility had operated — and said the blast exceeded expectations. “It was actually bigger than we thought, meaning they had a lot of stuff,” he said. “We’re taking away their nuclear capability.” He declined to specify what was struck, adding: “I’d rather not say, but you’ll learn soon enough.”

The president also declared the conflict has already achieved regime change. “We’re dealing right now with a totally different group of people, and they’re much more reasonable than previous — much more reasonable. And that is truly regime change,” he said.

Trump’s optimistic public framing should be read with some caution. Ahead of last June’s Operation Rising Lion, the White House said Trump would decide “within two weeks” on bombing Iran’s nuclear sites — and U.S. bombs fell three days later. And before the current war’s launch on Feb. 28, talks had been scheduled for March 2 in Vienna. The element of surprise enabled the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials on the war’s opening day.

Despite forecasting an early end to the fighting, Trump has simultaneously deployed thousands of additional troops to the region, including two Marine Corps amphibious ready groups and Army parachute specialists, preserving the option for potential ground operations.

Trump declined to confirm whether his negotiating team — including special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance — might travel to Pakistan or another country for talks. “I can’t talk to you about this stuff. Do you want me to give you my strategy?” he said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)