Updated March 9, 2026 at 5:10 PM CDT
President Trump is holding a press conference at his golf club in Florida Monday as the U.S. enters its second week of military strikes in Iran and amid soaring oil and gas prices as a result.
At the first news conference — the first since the beginning of the U.S.-Israel-led Iran war — Trump touted the success of the military.
"We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete," he said. "We've wiped every single force in Iran out, very completely, most of Iran's naval power powers been sunk."
Trump spent most of the weekend at Trump National Doral, one of his resort and golf properties in Miami. There, he met with House Republicans about the party's agenda and strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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Trump will face reporters as the average price of a gallon of gas has spiked, a growing political problem for Trump, who has raved about how he has lowered gas prices since returning to office. Crude oil prices nearly hit $120 a barrel on Monday before falling again.
But Trump told CBS News ahead of the press conference Monday that he thinks "the war is very complete, pretty much."
Iran has "no navy, no communications, they've got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones," he said.
Trump's latest assessment comes after he told reporters over the weekend that he wasn't worried about the price of gas.
"We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. Uh, they'll also come down. They'll come down very fast," he said.
Trump added the administration is looking into ways to ease the cost burden on Americans, but that spike in oil prices is worth it because the U.S. and Israel are working to "get rid of a major, major cancer on the face of the earth," referring to the Iranian regime.
"This is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years. 47 years it's taken to do this and no president had the guts to do it," Trump said.
But the rising price at the pump isn't the only tough sell Trump has to make.
The Trump administration has given varied messages on their motivations for striking Iran and in some cases conflicting reasoning, potentially harming their ability to rally public support. A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found the majority of Americans oppose U.S. military action in Iran and disapprove of how Trump is dealing with the middle eastern country.
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