Trump: ‘Israel should not worry’ about latest Iran clashes, war will wind down soon
Times of Israel · LC · trust 53/100
US President Donald Trump said that Israel should not worry about the ongoing escalation with Iran, and that he doesn’t expect the conflict with the Islamic Republic to last much longer, in a series of comments on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Kan public broadcaster in a phone interview, Trump vowed to protect Israel amid the latest escalation that has reverberated across the Middle East.
“Israel should not worry. You know why? Because I’m the president and I will take care of Israel,” Trump said.
Asked separately by a reporter in the Oval Office specifically about the latest escalation and how much longer it was likely to last, Trump responded, “Not too long.”
He then spoke more generally about the broader conflict and insisted that that too will be over soon, without providing a timeline.
“I don’t think it will be very much longer. I don’t know how much more they can take,” Trump said of Iran.
For months, he claimed that the war would end quickly and that Iran would capitulate, but that has not panned out.
The comments came after hostilities between the US and Iran abruptly flared up on Sunday, ending a month without military action and threatening to fully reignite the conflict.
Over the weekend, the US struck rocket launchers on Iran’s Larak Island, prompting Iran to fire missiles toward Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The US hit more Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday in the biggest outbreak of fighting since July.
Iran said one of the US strikes on Tuesday killed four people at a wedding, branding it a “war crime,” and launched a wave of retaliatory strikes at US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq.
US Central Command denied targeting civilians, telling Reuters on Wednesday that the US military “never targets civilians, unlike the Revolutionary Guards.”
While Iran has struck countries across the Middle East, it has refrained from hitting Israel in the current round of conflict. Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Wednesday that Israel was prepared to respond “with great force” if attacked by Iran during the Jewish holiday season, which begins next week.
Israel and the US jointly launched the war on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
The fighting entered a truce in April, and the US and Iran signed an interim agreement with Iran in June, but the deal collapsed because of disputes over control of the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran launched a blockade early in the war, prompting the US to retaliate in kind.
Since then, the bulk of the tension has been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, with the initial motivations for the war — stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and putting an end to its ballistic missile program — appearing to have largely fallen by the wayside.
Trump insisted on Wednesday the upcoming US midterm elections in early November were not a factor in his decision-making, as is widely thought to be the case.
Trump suggested Republican voters are okay with paying more at the pump temporarily because they don’t want Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Asked about his post earlier on Wednesday in which he wondered aloud when Iranians will revolt against the regime, he again acknowledged that such a rebellion would be difficult as long as protesters weren’t armed.
Recalling how regime gunmen have shot protesters, Trump said it was understandable that people have stopped taking to the streets.
“That’s why it’s not happening. And who can blame them? But the regime is getting weaker by the day,” he claimed.
He also entertained the idea of changing the name of the Strait of Hormuz to “Trump Strait,” despite the fact that the crucial waterway remains contested amid the war with Iran.
Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be “hotter” than ever before! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
( TS: Sep 2 2026, 11:23 AM ET )… pic.twitter.com/3QsLUFoWWi
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) September 2, 2026
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” Trump said on his Truth Social network. The White House later posted a map of the Gulf on social media with the waterway marked “Trump Strait.”
“It’s got a nice ring to it,” the White House post added.
It's got a nice ring to it pic.twitter.com/Fmzc9iUu8u
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 2, 2026
Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly pressed a threat to claim sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, even posting a map showing the waterway as a “new US territory.” Since returning to office last year, Trump has made a string of similar renaming suggestions that started out as apparent attempts to troll his adversaries, but then came to fruition.
Last week the 80-year-old Republican signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” amid a trade war with neighboring Canada.
Trump also renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” on his first day back in the White House in January 2025. Neither Mexico nor Canada has accepted the changes.
Trump additionally reverted the name of Denali, North America’s highest peak, to its former moniker Mt. McKinley.
The billionaire president has also gone on a spree of renaming things after himself, including the Kennedy arts center in Washington, a peace institute, a “Trump Gold Card” for immigration and a “Trump Rx” drug-sales website.
The US Treasury meanwhile on Wednesday issued $1 coins featuring Trump’s face to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, running counter to federal law that says no living president may appear on US currency.
But the strait suggestion may also be aimed at being a fresh distraction from the Iran war,…
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