President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday night, saying the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion”—just a month after “Operation Epic Fury” began, and warned that the U.S. will hit Tehran “extremely hard” over the next several weeks.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” the president said, touting the United States military and their “extraordinary” efforts.

Here are the top five takeaways from the president’s address: 

Trump says Operation Epic Fury is ‘nearing completion’

President Trump told Americans Wednesday night that after 32 days of Operation Epic Fury, Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat.” 

The president, upon the announcement of Operation Epic Fury, detailed the United States’ objectives. Trump said, “We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.”

“That means eliminating Iran’s Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their Air Force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base,” the president said Wednesday night.

INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL

“We’ve done all of it,” he continued. “Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran’s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.” 

“Our Armed Forces have been extraordinary,” the president said. “There’s never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it.” 

“And tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president thanked U.S. allies in the Middle East— “Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.”

“They’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“I’ve made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved, thanks to the progress we’ve made,” he said. “I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly.”

The president warned that the U.S. is “going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”

“We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.”

Trump says rising gas prices in the US are ‘short term’

Since Operation Epic Fury began, gas prices in the United States have increased. The president acknowledged that development, and expressed confidence that those increases are “short term.”

The average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4 Tuesday, a first since 2022. 

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” the president said. “The short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

“This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine,” the president said. “The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat. You all know that we built the strongest economy in history.”

The president touted the economy under his leadership, saying that he has “taken a dead and crippled country—I hate to say that, but we were dead and crippled country after the last administration—and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.”

The president said those economic gains “all positioned us to get rid of a cancer that has long simmered.”

“It’s known as the nuclear Iran, and they didn’t know what was coming. They’ve never imagined it,” he said. “Remember, because of our drill baby drill program, America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas.”

The president said that, under his leadership, the U.S. is the “number one producer of oil and gas on the planet without even discussing the millions of barrels that we’re getting from Venezuela because of the Trump administration’s policies. We produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.”

“Think of that— Saudi Arabia and Russia combined,” he continued. “And that number will soon be substantially higher than that. There’s no country like us anywhere in the world.”

The president stressed that “the hard part is done.”

“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up. Naturally. It’ll just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil because that’s all they have to try and rebuild,” he said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

The president said it was necessary to “take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat with our historic tax cuts, where people are just now talking about receiving larger refunds than they ever thought possible, they are getting so much more money than they thought. That’s from the great big, beautiful bill.”

He added: “Our economy is strong and improving by the day and it will soon be roaring back like never before. It will top the levels that it was a month ago.”

Trump thanks US troops for work in Middle East, Venezuela

The president began his address Wednesday night by thanking U.S. troops for “the massive job they did in taking the country of Venezuela in a matter of minutes.”

“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Trump said, referring to the January operation.

“We’re working along with Venezuela are, in a true sense, joint venture partners,” Trump said. “We’re getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas—The second largest reserves on Earth after the United States of America.”

POLL POSITION: WHERE TRUMP STANDS AMONG AMERICANS AS HE FACES THE NATION IN PRIMETIME

Shifting to Operation Epic Fury and the progress made, the president honored “the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives and this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”

“Twice this past month, I have traveled to Dover Air Force Base, and it’s been something I wanted to be with those heroes as they return to American soil,” he said. “And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands.”

“We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives,” the president said. “And every single one of the people, their loved one said, please, sir, please finish the job, every one of them, and we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”

Trump urges Americans to keep the Iran conflict ‘in perspective’

“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” the president said. “American involvement in World War One lasted one year, seven months and five days.”

“World War Two lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days,” He continued. “The Korean War lasted for three years, one month and two days. The Vietnam War lasted for 19 years, five months and 29 days.”

“Iraq went on for eight years, eight months and 28 days,” the president said.

“We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days,” he said. “And the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat.”

FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. WAR WITH IRAN

Trump said that Iran was “the bully of the Middle East, but they’re the bully no longer.”

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said. “The whole world is watching and they can’t leave the power, strength and brilliance. They just can’t believe what they’re seeing. They leave it to your imagination, but they can’t believe what they’re seeing—The brilliance of the United States military.”

He added: “Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching.”

Trump rips into Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal

President Trump said ending former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was among his top achievements as president, telling the nation he was “honored” to do it.

“I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal disaster,” Trump said. “Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash. Green, green cash took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”

The president went on to say that Obama “flew it by airplanes in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty. But it didn’t work.”

“They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb,” Trump said. “His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used him, would have been a different world.”

The president said, “There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, the opinion of a lot of great experts, had I not terminated that terrible deal that I was so honored to do it.”

“I was so proud to do it It was so bad right from the beginning,” he said. “Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do.”

He added: “They made mistakes and I am correcting them.”

The president said his “first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”

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“For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities and Operation Midnight Hammer. And nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently,” he said. “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites.”

But the president said the Iranian regime “then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

FRESNO  — Four of the top Democrats running for California governor on Wednesday told a agriculture-friendly Central Valley audience that the left-leaning state’s restrictions on business and the environment have made life more difficult for farmers and should be rolled back.

The candidates onstage at the Fresno State political forum, including two Republicans, did their best to appeal to voters in the midsection of California who often feel neglected by a state government dominated by big-city politicians from Southern California and the Bay Area.

“I’m here today because for far too long, the interests of our ag economy and our rural towns and cities and communities have been second tier, if they’ve even been on the agenda in Sacramento,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate Democrat whose campaign has yet to live up to the high expectations it initially received.

Mahan and five others invited to the forum focused on the state’s affordability crisis, water, government regulations and other issues facing the agricultural hub — all doing their best to play up any ties to the farmers and farmworkers who are so essential to providing food to California and the nation.

Mahan recalled growing up in Watsonville, an agricultural community that is the home of Driscoll’s berries and Martinelli’s apple cider. Fellow Democrat and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted his family’s personal ties to the valley. His father picked crops along State Route 99 as a young man, he grew up in Sacramento, and his wife is from Hanford and Fresno.

Former conservative commentator Steve Hilton said his family had a small farm in Hungary, which they fled because of communism. Former Democratic Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, who grew up in Iowa during the farming crisis of the 1980s, spoke of being the descendant of generations of farmers and being a member of 4-H as well the Future Farmers of America.

“I’m not a farmer today, but I thought I would be. … I believe in the future of agriculture with a faith born not of words, but of deeds,” Porter said, repeating FFA’s creed.

The event marked the first gathering of gubernatorial hopefuls since USC pulled the plug on its debate last week. USC officials canceled the event less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to begin after facing criticism for excluding the top candidates of color. The university said it used opinion polls and financial viability to determine which candidates were invited.

Organizers of the Fresno State event invited candidates who have earned at least an average of 3% in recent polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. Along with Mahan, Becerra, Hilton and Porter, the candidates invited included former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state Controller Betty Yee, both Democrats, were not invited.

Two leading Democratic candidates were not at the Fresno State forum: billionaire Tom Steyer was scheduled to tour the polluted Tijuana River Valley in San Diego County. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign cited a scheduling conflict but did not elaborate. Swalwell (D-Dublin) appeared to be doing media interviews in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Cutting gas taxes and other ways to save

California’s high cost of living is one of the most visible and pressing issues in the race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, and candidates pitched their plans to address it, primarily by lowering housing and energy costs.

Bianco, Hilton, Villaraigosa and Mahan have floated plans to cut oil industry regulations and suspend the state’s 61-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Bianco went further, saying he would completely eliminate the gas tax. Hilton said he would cap vehicle registrations at $71 per year no matter the type of car. Porter said her top priority is to lower housing costs by “building housing faster, building more housing, changing how we permit housing and innovating in construction and design and materials.”

Republican candidates blamed Democratic policies for the state’s high cost of living and argued that it would not be solved under a new governor of the same party. Both Bianco and Hilton pledged to gut state agencies responsible for regulating air and water quality.

“We’re never going to reduce the cost of groceries or anything else until we abandon the climate dogma that has got us to this point,” Hilton said, invoking the state’s goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 as a major cost driver.

According to a recent UC Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll, lowering the state’s cost of living was the top issue that likely voters want the state’s next governor to address. It was followed by cutting government waste and corruption — the top priority for Republican voters — and addressing homelessness.

Republicans take their shots

Wednesday’s forum was among the rare instances when Hilton and Bianco appeared before the same crowd. The Republicans have led polls for months, raising the specter of two Republicans and no Democrats appearing on the November general election ballot under California’s top-two primary system.

On Wednesday, they each tried to appeal to a more conservative-leaning audience than many other gubernatorial forums by blasting their Democratic opponents and statewide leaders.

”I think every single Democrat on this stage today should start with an apology,” Hilton said. “An apology for what their party has done to this area and this industry, stealing your water, piling on the regulations — 1,000% increase in the last decade or so, cutting the pay of agricultural workers, on and on.”

The Democrats onstage were repeatedly challenged and at times interrupted by Republican candidates who argued that electing another Democratic governor would bring more of the same problems to the region.

“You can’t just believe what’s on this stage,” Bianco said. “You have to listen to what they say in front of groups that don’t think like you, because everything that they’re saying here contradicts what they say in those groups with more cap-and-trade, more regulation, more everything else.”

Democrats talk up their experience

Democrats largely concurred on issues such as reducing regulations and increasing water supply to farmers. So they sought to differentiate themselves based on their experience and records in office.

Mahan painted himself as a pragmatist who led to San José being named the safest large city in the nation, reducing homelessness by one-third and spurring the construction of housing by reducing regulatory restrictions and fees.

“I’m accountable every day for making people’s lives better. I don’t get to make excuses and blame another party,” Mahan said. “You deserve better from Sacramento, and I’ll work with you to make sure we deliver it.”

Villaraigosa pointed to his eight-year tenure as mayor of Los Angeles, saying the city went from being the most violent big city in the country when he took office to being the safest by the time he left. He also said he took on the teachers union, which he once worked for, resulting in a 60% increase in the graduation rate.

Becerra pointed to his experiences leading the sprawling federal health agency in the Biden administration, including dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the wildfires that devastated Maui, Hawaii, avian flu and monkey pox.

“We do not need someone who needs training wheels,” he said.

Porter highlighted that she was the only candidate on the stage who refuses to take money from corporations and corporate PACs. The former congresswoman, who gained fame for her aggressive questioning of chief executives and Trump administration officials while in Congress, also pointed to her longtime focus on oversight.

“There are too many regulations that we are passing,” she said. “That is why I’m running for governor, to make sure that when things come to my desk, the first question is going to be, why did we need this?”

Water is for fighting

Nearly half of the forum was dedicated to questions about water policy, a complicated and politically thorny issue for Central Valley farmers and California as a whole. Most agreed the state should fast-track new reservoirs, raise some existing dams and increase water recycling to boost supply.

“We need an ‘all of the above’ solution,” Villaraigosa said. “That means we need recycling, we need [groundwater] recharge. We need dams. We need underground aquifers.”

Some Democrats, along with Hilton, continued to distance themselves from the proposed Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel, a huge project to transport water to the Central Valley and Southern California that has been tied up by legal challenges.

Bianco lambasted “environmental regulation[s] that makes weeds and bugs more important than your life,” and Hilton slammed “ridiculous bureaucracy” created by environmental laws such as the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Fourth-generation tomato and pepper farmer Briana Giampaoli described herself as moderate and said she hasn’t decided whom to support for governor yet, but she was impressed by the candidates’ breadth of knowledge on water and the regulatory hurdles farmers face, particularly Hilton.

“That was really surprising, and I’m glad that both parties seem to understand that there needs to be a change in California, that something is not working,” she said. “The industry is changing as a whole across the country, and the regulations here continue to make it harder and harder to farm.”

Democrats on immigration

Democratic candidates faced a friendlier audience at the Fresno City College forum later in the day, where they unanimously expressed support for immigrant communities and said the state should fully fund Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented people. To close a budget deficit, Newsom and state lawmakers froze enrollment and raised premiums for undocumented adults on the program.

Porter and Thurmond called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished but said, short of that, the state should monitor the federal agency’s operations in the state to protect civil liberties. The other candidates agreed; Villaraigosa pledged to ensure federal detention centers comply with all health and safety rules.