The Daily Populous Thursday April 2nd, 2026 evening edition
Authored by inews.co.uk and submitted by theipaper

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Even for a speech on April Fool’s Day, Donald Trump’s address to the nation about the Iran war felt like a bad joke.

In his first prime-time speech since the war began 33 days ago, the US President failed to meet the moment amid crumbling public support at home for the conflict.

It was billed as an important update on the war amid spiralling petrol prices with analysts claiming the worst oil shock in history is unfolding.

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Instead, Trump’s 20-minute address felt like a stump speech during his last election campaign, only with a slight Middle Eastern flavour.

Speaking from the White House, the US President sounded croaky, tired and looked like he didn’t want to be explaining yet again how well the war was supposedly going.

For a man who made his living selling real estate, this was one pitch that even Trump couldn’t make sound convincing.

It felt like the same tired, unbelievable talking points we’ve been hearing for a month now from senior White House officials and cabinet members.

Trump said that America’s core objectives were “nearing completion” and repeated that he expected the fighting would go on for another two to three weeks.

In an absurdly simplistic comparison, Trump reeled off the lengths of time America had been involved in other wars, such as WWII and the Korean War.

“We are in this military operation for 32 days and the country (Iran) has been eviscerated and is no longer a threat,” Trump said.

Vehicles line up along a street as drivers wait to refuel at a petrol station during a fuel shortage in Addis Ababa caused by the Middle East war (Photo: Marco Simoncelli/AFP/Getty)

Lest we forget, former US President George W Bush made his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech six weeks after the invasion of Iraq, a war that would go on for more than eight years.

At least Trump stuck to the script on the objectives of the war: making sure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, destroying the Iranian navy, degrading its missile capabilities and stopping it from being able to support terrorist allies in the region.

The problem was that earlier in the day, he told Reuters that he wasn’t bothered about getting hold of Iran’s supplies of enriched uranium.

Trump had said: “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that”.

When the US President turned to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage which carries 20 per cent of the world’s supply of oil and has been shut down by Iran, he went from optimistic to absurd.

According to Trump, the Strait will “open up naturally” once the war ends because the Iranians need money from oil, too.

In other words, Iran will magically give up its Trump card without anything in return.

What Americans were crying out for was some empathy about gas prices, which have hit $4 (£3) a gallon for the first time since 2022, when the Ukraine war began.

At a time when the cost of living was already the number one concern of voters, paying higher prices for petrol is proving crippling to many.

Instead, the US President glossed over the economic damage and made no mention of the fallout around the world, which has led some Asian nations to take drastic measures because of shortages of petrol.

Trump said the higher gas prices were a “short-term increase” which, in his fantastical reading of the tea leaves, would come down soon.

The only good point to come out of the address was that Trump didn’t attack Nato as strongly as had been expected.

Trump has been furious about the refusal of Western nations, the UK in particular, to help the military campaign and re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

In the speech, he urged Britain and the EU to buy oil from the US and go to the Strait and “just take it”, referring to the oil.

You might be forgiven for thinking why Trump bothered with the speech at all, but the tell may be in how badly the war is actually going.

With the US midterm elections just seven months away, the polling has been brutal for Trump and is getting worse by the day.

Hours before Trump spoke, a new CNN poll found that just one in three Americans believe the US President has a “clear plan to handle the situation in Iran”.

Two separate surveys released last week by The Associated Press and Quinnipiac University put Trump’s overall approval at just 38 per cent, a new low for him.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst survey put it even lower, at 33 per cent.

In the speech, Trump tried to portray the bombing of Iran as an “investment in your children and grandchildren’s future”.

“The whole world is watching and they can’t believe what they are seeing”, Trump said.

Very true, but just not in the way he thinks.

mariusbleek on April 2nd, 2026 at 12:26 UTC »

2-3 weeks is just Trumpian language for "I am not sure what the plan is or what I should realistically be doing. In the meantime, let's short the market"

theipaper on April 2nd, 2026 at 11:22 UTC »

Even for a speech on April Fool’s Day, Donald Trump’s address to the nation about the Iran war felt like a bad joke.

In his first prime-time speech since the war began 33 days ago, the US President failed to meet the moment amid crumbling public support at home for the conflict.

It was billed as an important update on the war amid spiralling petrol prices with analysts claiming the worst oil shock in history is unfolding.

Instead, Trump’s 20-minute address felt like a stump speech during his last election campaign, only with a slight Middle Eastern flavour.

Speaking from the White House, the US President sounded croaky, tired and looked like he didn’t want to be explaining yet again how well the war was supposedly going.

For a man who made his living selling real estate, this was one pitch that even Trump couldn’t make sound convincing.

It felt like the same tired, unbelievable talking points we’ve been hearing for a month now from senior White House officials and cabinet members.

Trump said that America’s core objectives were “nearing completion” and repeated that he expected the fighting would go on for another two to three weeks.

In an absurdly simplistic comparison, Trump reeled off the lengths of time America had been involved in other wars, such as WWII and the Korean War.

“We are in this military operation for 32 days and the country (Iran) has been eviscerated and is no longer a threat,” Trump said.

Lest we forget, former US President George W Bush made his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech six weeks after the invasion of Iraq, a war that would go on for more than eight years.

At least Trump stuck to the script on the objectives of the war: making sure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, destroying the Iranian navy, degrading its missile capabilities and stopping it from being able to support terrorist allies in the region.

The problem was that earlier in the day, he told Reuters that he wasn’t bothered about getting hold of Iran’s supplies of enriched uranium.

Trump had said: “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that”.

When the US President turned to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage which carries 20 per cent of the world’s supply of oil and has been shut down by Iran, he went from optimistic to absurd.

According to Trump, the Strait will “open up naturally” once the war ends because the Iranians need money from oil, too.

In other words, Iran will magically give up its Trump card without anything in return.

What Americans were crying out for was some empathy about gas prices, which have hit $4 (£3) a gallon for the first time since 2022, when the Ukraine war began.

At a time when the cost of living was already the number one concern of voters, paying higher prices for petrol is proving crippling to many.

Instead, the US President glossed over the economic damage and made no mention of the fallout around the world, which has led some Asian nations to take drastic measures because of shortages of petrol.

Trump said the higher gas prices were a “short-term increase” which, in his fantastical reading of the tea leaves, would come down soon.

The only good point to come out of the address was that Trump didn’t attack Nato as strongly as had been expected.

Trump has been furious about the refusal of Western nations, the UK in particular, to help the military campaign and re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

In the speech, he urged Britain and the EU to buy oil from the US and go to the Strait and “just take it”, referring to the oil.

You might be forgiven for thinking why Trump bothered with the speech at all, but the tell may be in how badly the war is actually going.

With the US midterm elections just seven months away, the polling has been brutal for Trump and is getting worse by the day.

Hours before Trump spoke, a new CNN poll found that just one in three Americans believe the US President has a “clear plan to handle the situation in Iran”.

Two separate surveys released last week by The Associated Press and Quinnipiac University put Trump’s overall approval at just 38 per cent, a new low for him.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst survey put it even lower, at 33 per cent.

In the speech, Trump tried to portray the bombing of Iran as an “investment in your children and grandchildren’s future”.

“The whole world is watching and they can’t believe what they are seeing”, Trump said.

Very true, but just not in the way he thinks.

Dijabolla on April 2nd, 2026 at 08:29 UTC »

Why so much analysis on what this guy is saying. I understand media, they are banking on this losers words but why everyone else is coping so hard. Why it is so hard to prosecute this guy. They needed four years just to put the tag felon next to his name and what happened, he became president. Why is it so hard to accept the fact that he is an uneducated grifter, born with the silver spoon in his mouth and now, evidently hit hard by dementia. In Bidens case everybody throw rocks on slightest gaf that guy had and in this case everybody just playing blind and deaf. How it is possible that one guy is holding entire US and the big chunk of the world as a hostage. What kind of magic is that? First, with who is paying the tariffs, then with the ICE killings, now with this war. Tf anymore, who is sitting in that Congress and Senate? Iran is holding upper hand thanks to the assymetric warfare in the case of Hormuz. And it can bother the ships in years to come.