President Trump on Tuesday declined to commit to how long he would hold off on striking Iran, telling reporters at the White House that the pause he announced a day earlier could expire as soon as Friday or stretch into next week, even as he repeated his threat to escalate the war against the Islamic Republic.

Speaking from the construction site of the new White House ballroom, with hammering audible behind him, Trump offered a shifting timeline for the postponed military operation he disclosed on Monday. “I’m saying two or three days — maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe early next week — a limited period of time,” he said.

“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” Trump added. “I’m not sure yet, you’ll know very soon.”

The remarks came one day after the president announced on Truth Social that he had called off an attack on Iran that he said had been scheduled for Tuesday, citing requests from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for two to three additional days to allow negotiations to progress. Officials from the three Gulf states told The Wall Street Journal they were unaware of any imminent strike, contradicting the central premise of the president’s account.

Trump’s description of the decision shifted within minutes on Tuesday. At one point he said he had been “an hour away from making the decision” to launch the strike when Gulf leaders contacted him. Moments later he said he had already “made the decision” to attack when the calls came in.

The president repeated his claim that previous U.S. strikes had effectively produced regime change in Iran, an assertion that has been contested by intelligence assessments throughout the war. He later described Tehran’s current leaders as “extremely radicalized” and said he believed they would be willing to use a nuclear weapon against the United States if they obtained one.

The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed under Iranian control, and a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports has turned away 88 vessels, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Pressed on the political costs of the conflict, Mr. Trump rejected the premise. “Everyone tells me it’s unpopular, but I think it’s very popular,” he said.

The claim runs counter to a body of polling that has consistently found the opposite. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday found that 64 percent of voters said going to war with Iran was the wrong decision, including 73 percent of independents. The same poll put Trump’s overall approval at 37 percent, a second-term low, with 65 percent disapproving of his handling of the war and 55 percent saying it has not been worth the costs. Fifty-two percent told the pollsters they did not want military operations to resume.

A CBS News poll released the same week found 65 percent of respondents said Trump’s policies were making the economy worse in the short term, with 59 percent reporting that higher gas prices had caused financial hardship, an eight-point jump since April.

Trump suggested the opposition was a function of insufficient explanation. “When we explain it to people, I don’t really have enough time to explain to people. I’m too busy getting it done,” he said. “When they understand the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, I think it’s frankly very popular.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)