Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why did Donald Trump call this speech today?

If you were hoping Donald Trump scheduling a speech meant there would be some sort of development in the war -either the US pulling out, putting boots on the ground or opening the Strait - then, like me, you would have been disappointed.

There was no news, was there? No announcement at all. Donald Trump was simply trying to convince American voters with PR - and it’s stuff he’s said before.

The main points of the speech were familiar: Iran are the bad guys and need to be stopped; the US will hit them hard in the next two to three weeks; yes, the war is making fuel more expensive but not because of anything he’s done - it’s because of what the Iranians have done, namely shutting the Strait of Hormuz.

He also argued the war hasn’t taken that long compared to past conflicts like World War II, which the US was involved in for three years, eight months and 25 days.

Trump said he never wanted regime change in Iran - but, by the way, there has been regime change because radical leaders have been killed and the new leaders aren’t as radical. And if they don’t strike a deal, he might hit their energy plants and “send them back to the Stone Age”.

None of this is new. He’s said all of this - or most of it - before. So why did he call the speech for 2pm our time? Because he's worried.

American voters are not on board with what he’s done. So he’s trying to go over the top of the media narrative that he’s losing and that the war is dragging on.

He’s trying to sell the message that this is actually short and sharp, that it will end soon. And he’s also trying to sell the idea that when he pulls out without changing the regime, he won’t have lost.

Even though, if he does pull out without changing the regime, he will have lost - because all he will have done is set Iran back in its wrongdoing, not prevent that wrongdoing from recurring.

But there is no end to this war. There is no opening of the Strait. And as of the speech, there is no news.

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