Iran just got attacked in the strait Trump says is sealed
1 hour ago · 9 October 2026Share
A Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit soars after a refueling mission over the Pacific Ocean in May 2006. File photo. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III · Public domain
He said it a few hours ago, at a Columbus Day event in the East Room of the White House.
His line was simple. The US already stopped Iran getting a nuclear weapon. So nobody needs to worry now.
He said it straight out: the US "shouldn't worry now" because it had "stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon."
Then he put a number on it. He said without the B-2 bomber strikes, Iran would have been two or three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.
That's Trump's own estimate of how close Iran came. Not a confirmed figure. His number.
And nobody has shown their working. No reporting on the speech points to any intelligence behind that two or three weeks line. It's just what Trump said.
He didn't stop there. He said Iran can't fight back at all anymore.
He said Iran has no military, no navy, no air force, and no anti-aircraft defences.
And then the big one. He told the room the war is going to be over soon, one way or the other.
So is that a ceasefire? No. He didn't say he's talking to Tehran. He gave no date. No timetable. Just a feeling that it's nearly done.
He also said the US Navy has sealed the Strait of Hormuz, and that nobody gets through.
And he said 28 million barrels of oil got taken out the day before he spoke. He said diesel prices are about to come tumbling down, and petrol in America could drop to somewhere between $1.85 and $1.95 a gallon.
But here's the thing.
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A satellite image of the Dasht-e Kavir desert in Iran captured by the USGS, showing geological formations shaped by erosion. File photo. USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch. · Public domain
On the exact same day Trump was saying nobody gets through that strait, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it had just hit a tanker trying to cross it.
The tanker was using what Iran called an illegal route. The Guard says the ship caught fire.
And Iran didn't stop at a warning for that one ship. It said it will keep hunting down and punishing any vessel that uses unauthorised routes anywhere in the region, not just in the strait.
So the strait Trump says is completely sealed is the same strait Iran was actively attacking ships in, the very day he gave that speech.
Iran hasn't responded directly to Trump's statements about its nuclear programme or its military.
But two days ago, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, said Tehran was still reviewing an American proposal that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. He said Iran could reply within days. He did not say yes. He did not say no.
Now, here's some history worth knowing.
This isn't the first deadline Trump has given this war. Back in March, he said more than once that the whole conflict, and separately the nuclear threat, would be sorted within four to six weeks.
That didn't happen.
A ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran was actually signed in April. It broke down by June. US strikes on Iran started again that same month.
So a war Trump already said was nearly finished once before is the same war he's calling nearly finished again now. And in between, it just kept going.
What we still don't know: what intelligence, if any, backs up the two or three weeks figure. And whether Iran's government will come out and directly dispute Trump's account of the strikes or the state of its military.
So that's where this sits. Trump says the US already won the nuclear fight, and the war is nearly over.
Iran, on the same day, was still firing on ships in the strait he says is shut tight.
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