Axios spoke with Trump

“Any time I want it to end, it will end,” Trump said during the five-minute call with Axios.

“The war is going great.
We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we
thought possible, even in the original six-week period,” Trump told
Axios.

This is the strongest signal yet that the war could end in the near-term.

Trump in the article hiimself said it will end “soon” however the same article cites other reports saying Israeli and US officials who have said they are preparing for at least two more weeks of strikes in Iran.

But there is one person in charge of the US military during this operation and — like he said — it will end when he wants it to. It sounds like he doesn’t have the appetite to keep it going, especially with polling showing poor numbers.

Trump has struggled to set goals for the campaign as he said he wanted unconditional surrender and regime change at various times. That’s looking unlikely at the moment and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defined goals as a destruction of missile-making capability, the navy and defense capabilities as the main goals.

Stock markets initially rose on these headlines but the limited reaction afterwards suggested that the news was largely priced in already. The announcement also came at the same time as the official IEA announcement on strategic oil releases. That announcement didn’t contain any timelines and that’s led to some buying in crude, which could be hurting broader sentiment.