At the outset of the U.S.-Israel-led war in Iran, President Trump gave lots of reasons for launching the strikes on Iran from stopping its nuclear capabilities to regime change.
Now, Trump seems to be ready to talk an endgame as back channel negotiations begin.
His objectives for starting the war - and ending it - have shifted in the weeks since launching strikes early on Feb. 28.
Here is a reminder of some of what he has said - and where the U.S. is now.
Protesters and revolution
When Trump announced the strikes early on a Saturday morning, he called it the "single greatest chance" for the Iranian people to take back their country.
Those strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who Trump called "one of the most evil people in history."
Khamenei oversaw the brutal crackdown on what Trump has said were up to 30,000 demonstrators who were protesting the Tehran regime.. Human Rights News Agency has reported at least 7,000 protesters died through February and an additional 11,700 cases are under review, though they acknowledge given the internet blackouts it has been difficult to get accurate assessments.
"All I want is freedom for the people," Trump told The Washington Post just hours after those first strikes.
Trump also called on Iranian soldiers to "lay down your weapons" and urged them to join forces with the Iranian people to take over the government.
"It will be yours to take," he said.
He would echo those calls a few days later, calling on "Iranian patriots" to seize this moment.
"America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we'll be there to help," he said on March 1.
But as the war continued into the third and fourth week, Trump has spoken less and less about the protesters and has made no recent calls for protesters to overthrow the government.
Regime change
While Trump's Cabinet leaders stuck to more focused military objectives, Trump repeatedly articulated a much broader goal early on.
Just a week into the fighting, on March 6, Trump upped the ante by demanding there would be no deal with Iran "except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER," on social media.
"After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before," he added.
He repeatedly touted the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and used it as an example of the type of regime change that he was seeking in Iran.
But Iran instead announced that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be taking over as supreme leader, an indication that it had no plans of backing away from the regime.
Trump and his team soon appeared to distance themselves from those earlier promises.
Top officials always deflected questions about whether regime change was a goal, focusing instead on the military objectives that the administration outlined.
And Trump appeared to back away from unconditional surrender as well, telling NPR on March 13 that it didn't matter whether Tehran actually said it surrendered as long as the U.S. had a position of dominance.
On Monday, however, Trump appeared to return to the idea of regime change with the start of the new talks.
"There's automatically a regime change," he told reporters on March 23, noting that all the previous leaders were dead and that his team was dealing with new people who he said were "very reasonable, very solid."
Iran publicly said it wasn't engaged in any direct or indirect talks with the U.S.
Peace
When he launched the war, Trump emphasized that the bombing would continue uninterrupted "as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!"
But those are not the objectives laid out by his top aides and officials, including the defense secretary and secretary of state. They instead have focused on the four military objectives: preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, destroying Iran's Navy, destroying the country's ballistic missile arsenal and destroying its ability to produce more such weapons.
And Trump has appeared to at least partially back off his objective of world peace. Instead, he has scaled back his ambition from the world and claimed that the war would help establish peace in just the region by weakening Iran's military.
Nuclear capabilities
The one consistent objective that Trump has pursued is ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.
After postponing U.S. strikes on Iran power plants, Trump has repeatedly teased development and agreement on key issues, while providing few details. He mentioned one: "It starts with no nuclear weapons, and they've agreed to that, there won't be any nuclear weapons. They're not going to have, and they're not going to have enrichment, any of those things," Trump said on March 24, though the regime has always insisted it wasn't going to make a nuclear weapon.
It does continue to maintain a stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium believed to be buried in the mountains. The president has not said how far he's willing to go to seize or destroy those materials that could potentially be used to build a nuclear weapon - as it would likely entail sending ground troops.
Ballistic missiles
In his first comments after announcing the strikes on Feb. 28, Trump claimed Iran had been building missiles that "could soon reach the American homeland."
But that claim is not backed up by any public U.S. intelligence reports. The Defense Intelligence Agency reported last spring that Iran would not be able to develop a long-range missile by 2035.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth charged that Tehran was building missiles and drones to create a "conventional shield" for its nuclear weapon ambitions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that point on March 2, alleging that Iran was producing 100 of the ballistic missiles a month which "they can hide behind."
"That is what they were trying to do, is put themselves in a place of immunity where the damage they can inflict on the region would be so high that no one can do anything about their nuclear program or their nuclear ambitions," Rubio said on March 2.
Support for terrorism
During a recent bilateral meeting with the German chancellor, Trump said that "something had to be done" about the amount of funding Iran provided to its network of proxy groups that fight across the region, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
"When you look at all of the problems, they were really a purveyor of terror all over the world for many, many years," Trump said on March 3. "And it's something that had to be done."
A week later he added: "Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I'm doing, and they should have done it a long time ago," Trump said on March 16. "It would have been a lot easier. There's no president that wanted to do it."
Reopen Strait of Hormuz
The strait was not a reason Trump gave for starting the war, but it has been a clear objective for ending it after Iran moved to close down the passage in retaliation.
"If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible. No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD," Trump said on March 3.
The U.S. has yet to escort tankers through the Strait and Trump has failed, so far, to recruit national leaders to join his proposed military coalition to help secure the threat. He has called those nations "cowards," and threatened to rethink the U.S. relationship with the NATO alliance.
And Trump continues to threaten Iran militarily - and NPR reports additional Marines are headed to the region..
The strait remains largely closed off to traffic, but Trump teased a potential development on Tuesday that he said was worth "a tremendous amount of money."
"I'm not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize, and they gave it to us. and they said they were going to give it," Trump said. "So that meant one thing to me: we're dealing with the right people."
Trump said it wasn't nuclear related, but oil and gas related - and tied to the Strait of Hormuz.
Copyright 2026 NPR
