Trump yesterday announced that he will deliver a speech at 9 pm today.

There have been hints and leaks about it all day and now we have another one from Politico that says:

• Trump will declare the war is “winding down”
• He’s expected to claim that all military objectives have been met
• He intends to harshly scapegoat NATO allies for Homuz
• Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, said the president will essentially declare victory
• Speech may touch on how he intends to move forward if ceasefire talks sputter

Here is what Bannon said:

“Two, three weeks, definable objectives. ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ — and we are hanging around a couple of weeks to conquer some more — maybe even then a ceasefire, while reiterating that the Hormuz situation is the Gulf Emirates’ and the Europeans’ to solve, and declare victory.”

That’s been hinted at for awhile but for markets, Hormuz is the main issue and we really need to get a sense of where that’s headed.

Another source said:

It needs to be reassuring,” one of the people familiar said. “It needs to be very direct because he’s not just communicating with the American people but the Iranians, our allies in the region and our allies in Europe.”

That’s not exactly his style.