Trump addresses war with Iran
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
This episode: All Things Considered host Scott Detrow, White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, national security correspondent Greg Myre, and international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam.
This podcast was edited and produced by Casey Morell.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
Special thanks to Luke Garrett, Hannah Gluvna and Mansee Khurana.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's the Impair Politics podcast. I'm Scott Detrow. |
| 0:08.1 | President Trump addressed the nation tonight to talk about the war in Iran. |
| 0:12.7 | After a month of conflict, Trump said this is close to the end. |
| 0:17.6 | Tonight, I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion. |
| 0:24.5 | As we celebrate this progress, we think especially of the 13 American warriors who have laid down |
| 0:31.0 | their lives in this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran. |
| 0:38.1 | We have NPR National Security correspondent Greg Myrie, White House correspondent Deepa Chivrame, International Affairs correspondent Jackie Northam. |
| 0:45.1 | Deepa, I want to start with you. A lot of things stood out to me in this speech tonight, but I think the main one is that President Trump delivered remarks from the White House, and he made the case for a war. |
| 0:56.6 | And he made the case for a war more than a month into the conflict. |
| 1:00.1 | Yeah, we're like on week five right now, and the president is trying to explain to Americans |
| 1:04.3 | why the U.S. went to war in Iran in the first place. |
| 1:08.1 | He didn't really make this case to the American people. |
| 1:10.3 | Even when the attacks |
| 1:11.6 | initially happened, it took some time for him to come on camera days to talk about the objectives, |
| 1:17.4 | the goals here. And now he's doing this formal address, this major address, weeks into the war. |
| 1:22.7 | And I'll point out it comes at a time when approval ratings for Trump are, you know, going lower a little bit. |
| 1:28.2 | People are feeling this war in their pocketbooks. Gas prices are going up. So he's delayed in this, |
| 1:33.3 | and it's notable that he's doing it now. I think the things that stood out to me is that he |
| 1:37.1 | repeatedly said that he essentially wants credit for taking action in Iran when no other president |
| 1:42.4 | did. He wanted the credit for that. And he said and described |
| 1:45.7 | this war as an investment in, you know, your children, your grandchildren's future. He sort of painted it |
| 1:51.7 | that way. And he said, essentially, you know, that this war is short so far. It's just 30 plus days at this |
... |
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