Fact check: Trump’s attempt to pretend he didn’t say the Iran war would last mere ‘weeks’

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President Donald Trump has a long history of trying to rewrite history about his own public remarks. He is now doing it again about the war with Iran – wrongly describing his own past predictions that the war would last mere weeks.

In March, Trump said he thought the war he launched on the last day of February would be over in “four weeks,” “four to five weeks,” “four to six weeks,” or otherwise under two months. But in a social media post on Thursday, a full seven months after the war began, he claimed that his “four to six weeks” projections had just been about the time it would take to eradicate the nuclear threat from Iran – in other words, not the time it would take to conclude the entire war.

“I stated, numerous times, that it would take 4-6 weeks to get rid of THE IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT, and I did it in one night! The rest of the time is just to make sure it stays that way,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

And when a journalist from TIME Magazine reminded Trump in a Monday interview published earlier Thursday that “I feel like most people heard you say four to six weeks,” Trump responded, “No, I think the press fed it to them.”

No. That’s indeed what Trump said. So did his White House press secretary – citing Trump’s own words.

In this article, we will mostly leave aside Trump’s Thursday assertion that he eliminated the nuclear threat from Iran in the first day of the war, which is rejected by many experts. We’ll focus on his inaccurate depiction of his own prior comments about the length of the conflict.

It’s possible that Trump said somewhere at some point that he was referring specifically to the nuclear threat when he spoke of being finished in weeks. But the White House couldn’t provide any examples when CNN asked if there were any, instead emailing a reply on Friday morning that declared Trump “right” but didn’t address our specific request for proof.

Even if some examples do exist, Trump clearly said in multiple public comments that he thought the entire war would be finished in just weeks. Then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed those claims, regularly using a timeline of “four to six weeks” and attributing it to Trump. Here is a sampling of what they said.

March 2, Trump interview with CNN: Less than three days into the war, CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Trump in an interview how long the war might last. Trump responded , “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

March 2, Trump speech: In a speech later that day, Trump made a projection of “four to five weeks” while talking about the war as a whole, though he left the door open to a longer conflict: “We have the strongest and most powerful, by far, military in the world, and we will easily prevail. We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes, we will always – and we have, right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.”

March 10, Leavitt briefing: Asked about the current timeline for how long the war would last, Leavitt repeated that “four to six weeks” was the initial timeline for achieving all the objectives of the war – not just addressing a nuclear threat from Iran.

“The president and the US military’s initial timeline was about four to six weeks to achieve the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” she said. “Again, to destroy their missiles and their ability to make them, destroy their navy, permanently deny them nuclear weapons forever and to, of course, weaken their evil terrorist proxies in the region.” She added that the military was “well ahead of schedule” but that Trump would ultimately decide when the objectives had been met.

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March 25, Leavitt briefing: Leavitt cited an estimate of “approximately four to six weeks” for the war as a whole, again claiming the military was ahead of schedule: “From the outset, President Trump and the Department of War estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve this critical mission. Twenty-five days in, the greatest military the world has ever known is ahead of schedule and performing exceptionally.”

March 26, Trump remarks at Cabinet meeting: Trump twice repeated a “four to six weeks” estimate while talking about the war as a whole, and he said both times that the US was ahead of this schedule.

First, he said, “We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission, and we’re way ahead of schedule. If you look at what we’ve done in terms of the destruction of that country, I mean we’re way ahead. Think of it: they have no navy, and they had good ships; 154 ships have been shot down and are resting very nicely at the bottom of the sea.”

Second, he said: “And we did that in a matter of less than a week, because we have the greatest military in the world by far, nobody even close. So we estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission; 26 days in, we’re extremely – really a lot ahead of schedule. The Iranian regime is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated.”

March 30, Leavitt briefing: Leavitt told reporters , “With respect to the timeline, again, the president, commander-in-chief, the Pentagon has always stated four to six weeks estimated timeline for Operation Epic Fury.”

March 31, Trump exchange with reporters: Talking about the war, Trump said , “I would say that within two weeks, maybe; two weeks, maybe three.” When a reporter asked if he meant “the US will be gone or done with the war in two weeks,” Trump said, “I think two or three weeks, yeah.” And when a reporter began a follow-up question by saying “that three weeks, if it is…” Trump interjected and said, “We’ll leave.”

A bit later, the president said, “I had one goal, they will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons. But we’re finishing the job. And I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job, but we want to knock out every single thing they have.”

In other words, though he referred to the Iranian nuclear threat, he explicitly said he thought the US would be done with the war less than eight weeks after it started.

April 8, Leavitt briefing: Leavitt said , “From the very beginning of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump stated this would be a four-to-six-week military operation to dismantle the military threat posed by the radical Islamic Iranian regime. Thanks to the unbelievable capabilities of America’s warfighters, the United States has achieved and exceeded those core military objectives in just 38 days.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was frequently less specific than Trump on the expected length of the war. On March 2, the day Trump said “four weeks” and then “four to five weeks,” Hegseth said , “President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back.”

And at various times, including in March, Trump offered vaguer comments on how long the war would last – for example, saying March 9 that it would end “very soon” without providing a timeline. In a social media post in April, he was already distancing himself from his prior estimates of six weeks or less, claiming it was Democrats who “like to say that I promised 6 weeks to defeat Iran.”

He can quibble about whether he made a promise or offered an estimate. But the record shows the “six weeks” figure came from his own mouth.

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唐纳德·特朗普总统长期以来一直试图篡改自己公开言论的历史。如今，他又一次试图篡改关于伊朗战争的言论——错误地描述了他过去关于战争只会持续数周的预测。

今年三月，特朗普曾表示，他认为二月底发动的这场战争将在“四周”、“四到五周”、“四到六周”内结束，或者更确切地说，会在两个月内结束。然而，在战争爆发整整七个月后的周四，他在社交媒体上发帖称，他之前预测的“四到六周”只是指消除伊朗核威胁所需的时间——换句话说，并非指结束整场战争所需的时间。

“我曾多次说过，消除伊朗核威胁需要4到6周时间，而我一夜之间就做到了！剩下的时间只是为了确保这种情况继续下去，”特朗普在他的“真相社交”平台上写道。

当《时代》杂志的一名记者在周一的采访中提醒特朗普，“我觉得大多数人听到的都是你说的是四到六周”时，特朗普回应说，“不，我认为是媒体告诉他们的。”

不，特朗普确实这么说过。他的白宫新闻秘书也引用了特朗普自己的话。

本文将主要忽略特朗普周四关于他在战争第一天就消除了伊朗核威胁的说法（许多专家对此并不认同），而是着重分析他对其先前关于战争持续时间的言论的错误描述。

特朗普或许曾在某个场合说过，他所说的“几周内结束”特指核威胁。但当CNN询问白宫是否有相关例证时，白宫却无法提供任何证据，只是在周五早上回复邮件，声称特朗普“说得对”，但并未回应我们要求提供具体证据的要求。

即便确实存在一些例子，特朗普也曾在多次公开讲话中明确表示，他认为整场战争将在几周内结束。时任白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特也附和了这些说法，经常使用“四到六周”的时间表，并将其归咎于特朗普。以下是他们言论的节选。

3月2日，特朗普接受CNN采访：战争爆发不到三天，CNN主播杰克·塔珀在采访中问特朗普，这场战争可能会持续多久。特朗普回答说：“我不想看到战争持续太久。我一直认为战争会持续四周。而且我们比预期提前了一些。”

3月2日，特朗普讲话：当天晚些时候，特朗普在谈到整场战争时预测战争将持续“四到五周”，但他并未排除战争持续更长时间的可能性：“我们拥有世界上最强大、最有实力的军队，我们将轻松取胜。我们目前的进展已经远远超过了预期。但无论需要多久，都没关系。无论付出什么代价，我们都会——而且从一开始我们就一直如此——预测战争将持续四到五周，但我们有能力坚持更长时间。”

3 月 10 日，利维特简报：当被问及战争将持续多久的当前时间表时，利维特重申，“四到六周”是实现战争所有目标的最初时间表——不仅仅是应对伊朗的核威胁。

“总统和美军最初的计划是在四到六周内完成‘史诗狂怒行动’的全部目标，”她说道。“再次强调，此次行动旨在摧毁他们的导弹及其制造能力，摧毁他们的海军，永久剥夺他们拥有核武器的权利，当然，还要削弱他们在该地区的邪恶恐怖代理人。”她补充说，军方“远远超前于计划”，但最终何时达到目标将由特朗普决定。

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3月25日，莱维特简报：莱维特估计整场战争大约需要“四到六周”，并再次声称军方进度超前：“从一开始，特朗普总统和战争部就估计完成这项关键任务大约需要四到六周时间。25天过去了，这支世界上最强大的军队不仅进度超前，而且表现卓越。”

3月26日，特朗普在内阁会议上发表讲话：特朗普在谈到整场战争时两次重复了“四到六周”的估计，并且两次都表示美国已经提前完成了这一计划。

他首先说道：“我们估计完成任务大约需要四到六周时间，而我们远远提前完成了任务。看看我们对那个国家的破坏程度，我的意思是，我们遥遥领先。想想看：他们没有海军，却拥有性能优良的舰船；154艘舰船被击沉，现在静静地躺在海底。”

其次，他说：“我们只用了不到一周的时间就完成了这项任务，因为我们拥有世界上最强大的军队，没有之一。我们原本估计完成任务大约需要四到六周；现在才过了26天，我们的进度就远远超前了。伊朗政权现在也承认他们已经彻底失败了。”

3月30日，利维特简报会：利维特告诉记者，“关于时间表，总统、三军统帅和五角大楼一直表示，‘史诗狂怒行动’的预计时间表为四到六周。”

3月31日，特朗普与记者交流：谈到战争时，特朗普说：“我想说，也许两周内，两周，也许三周。”当记者问他是否指的是“美国将在两周内撤军或结束战争”时，特朗普说：“我想是两到三周，是的。”当记者开始追问“如果真是三周的话……”时，特朗普打断他，说：“我们会撤军。”

过了一会儿，总统说：“我只有一​​个目标，那就是让他们没有核武器，这个目标已经实现了。他们不会拥有核武器。但我们正在完成最后的收尾工作。我认为可能还需要两周，也许再过几天，我们就能完成这项工作，但我们想要彻底摧毁他们拥有的所有核武器。”

换句话说，虽然他提到了伊朗的核威胁，但他明确表示，他认为美国会在战争开始不到八周后就结束这场战争。

4月8日，利维特简报会上，利维特表示：“从‘史诗狂怒行动’一开始，特朗普总统就明确指出，这将是一场为期四到六周的军事行动，旨在瓦解伊朗激进伊斯兰政权构成的军事威胁。得益于美国军人令人难以置信的作战能力，美国仅用了38天就实现了这些核心军事目标，甚至超额完成。”

国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在战争预计持续时间的问题上，经常不像特朗普那样给出明确的答案。3月2日，特朗普先是说“四周”，然后又说“四到五周”，当天赫格塞斯表示：“特朗普总统完全可以自由地谈论战争可能需要四周、两周、六周，也可能不需要。战争持续时间可能会提前，也可能会延后。”

而且，包括3月份在内，特朗普曾多次就战争持续时间发表含糊不清的评论——例如，3月9日他声称战争“很快”就会结束，但没有给出具体时间表。4月份，他在社交媒体上发帖，开始推翻自己之前六周或更短时间的估计，声称是民主党人“喜欢说我承诺六周内击败伊朗”。

他可以为自己是否做出承诺或给出预估时间而辩解，但记录显示，“六周”这个数字的确出自他本人之口。