Trump lays out exit strategy for Iran war: Just pack up and leave

“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump said.

“The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!” It was a theme War Secretary Pete Hegseth, just back from a secret visit to the troops in the theater, echoed at his morning briefing at the Pentagon.

“I think other countries should pay attention when the President speaks,” Hegseth said.

“He’s pointing out, you know, you might want to start learning how to fight for yourself.” WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? After considering the various unpalatable options for using military force to take control of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump decided there was no need to do anything.

The Strait, he says, will just open up by itself.

“If France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they’ll go up through the Hormuz Strait, they’ll go right up there, and they’ll be able to fend for themselves,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony in the late afternoon.

“I think it will be very safe actually. But we have nothing to do with that … China, China will go up and they’ll fuel up their beautiful ships and they’ll leave and they’ll take care of themselves. There’s no reason for us to do it.”

Earlier in the morning, Trump singled out France for particular opprobrium.

“France wouldn’t let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory. France has been VERY UNHELPFUL,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding his now routine postscript.

“The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!” ” ‘WE’LL BE LEAVING VERY SOON’: At the White House event, Trump said both that regime change was never his goal, and then in the next breath that it had been achieved.

“We have regime change. We have nice new leaders.”

“We’re finishing the job,” Trump said, estimating that it would take “maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer.” There are still targets to be bombed, he said.

“We want to knock out every single thing they have.”

“I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons,” Trump insisted.

“It’ll take 15 to 20 years for them to rebuild what we’ve done to them.” Trump has also dropped the demand that Iran dismantle its nuclear program, and he made no mention of the 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium that — if recovered from the rubble of last summer’s strikes — could be used to make 11 atomic bombs.

“It’s possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump said.

“If they come to the table, that’ll be good. But, it doesn’t matter whether they come or not.” Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie.

Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com.

Note To Readers

: Remember, today is April Fools Day. Time to fondly recall that famous George W. Bush quote, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” Keep your guard up.

Happening Tonight

: ‘AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON IRAN’: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X last night that Trump will “give an Address to the Nation to provide an important update on Iran” at 9 p.m. tonight. BURNS:

Ceding The Strait Would Be

‘A SIGNIFICANT DEFEAT’: Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicolas Burns warned this morning that leaving Iran as the “toll keeper” of the Strait of Hormuz would be “a significant defeat for the United States.”

“It’s just not realistic,” Burns said in an appearance on CNN.

“It’s irresponsible to suggest that somehow we’re going to leave the war, leave everyone in the global economy worse off, the Strait of Hormuz closed, and an economic global economic and energy crisis we started.”

“He cannot leave with a job unfinished,” Burns told CNN’s Erica Hill.

“If he leaves with the Strait closed, Iran is the toll keeper on the Strait of Hormuz, which was not the case on February 28th when the war began.”

“So you know, we could have a situation where Iran has lost every day of this war because of the brilliance of the American military, and yet on the final day of the war, when we leave the world in a different situation.”

Also Today

: This morning Trump plans to attend the oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the case of Trump v Barbara, in which the the administration is challenging the interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Trump wants to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily, and in a brief filed ahead of today’s arguments, contends “The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was adopted to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children — not to children of temporarily present aliens or illegal aliens.” The high court convenes at 10 a.m. RUBIO: ‘WHY ARE WE IN NATO?’’: In an appearance last night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that after the Iran war is over, “We’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO and that alliance for our country.”

Trump — who has bullied, disparaged, and threatened America’s NATO allies, while failing to consult any of them before launching the war on Iran — has made no secret of his disenchantment with the U.K. France, Italy, and Spain, who have denied overflight or basing right to U.S. warplanes taking part in Operation Epic Fury.

“If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means that we can’t use those bases that, in fact — that we can no longer use those bases to defend America’s interests, then NATO is a one-way street. That NATO is simply about us having troops in Europe to defend Europe,” Rubio told Hannity last night.

“We’re not asking them to conduct air strikes. When we need them to allow us to use their military bases, their answer is no, then why are we in NATO?”

“I’ve been one of the strongest defenders of NATO during my time as a United States senator because I found great value in it. It wasn’t just about defending Europe. I said it also allowed us to have military bases in Europe that allowed us to project power into different parts of the world when our national security was threatened,” Rubio said.