'Lot of confusion': CNN host left spinning by 3-hour wave of Trump contradictions

CNN's Sara Sidner struggled to make sense of President Donald Trump's seemingly contradictory statements about how long the Iran war might last.

The 79-year-old president declared the war "pretty much" complete in a phone interview Monday, but hours later told Republican lawmakers "we haven't won enough" to ensure long-term security — but then assured them he considered the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation a "short-term excursion."

"In thespan of about three hoursyesterday, the president, attimes, the messaging on Iranseemed to be at one point that the end is near," reported CNN's Alayna Treene, "essentially, that he believesthat the United Statesobjectives in Iran were soon tobe concluded. But then at otherpoints, he said that they couldgo much further, and you played that clip, but he did that againlater, particularly in answeringreporters' questions. I want youto listen to what he said."

Trump was asked to clarify a discrepancy between his declaration that the war was nearly complete, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier said it was still in the early stages, and the president said both positions were accurate because he believed it would take a long time to rebuild Iran.

"I think that reallyshowcases thepresident's ability to kind ofsay two completely differentthings in the same breath," Treene said. " ... Otherthings that the president didthat I think are important tonote here. One, he talked about the new supreme leader in Iran,saying that he was verydisappointed with thatselection, and he told reportersthat he thinks it's going to,quote, 'lead to just more of thesame problem for the country weare just seeing.'"

"Two, that thepresident spoke in a newinterview with Fox News,essentially saying that the new Ayatollah Khamenei cannot livein peace," she continued. "So unclear exactlywhat that means about what the United States might try to doabout it, and another thing thatis clear despite all of theconflicting messages about thetimeline for the U.S. in Iran, isoil prices and gas prices arespiking, and the politics ofthis are quickly changing, and Ithink that's why we saw thepresident kind of hastilyarrange this press conferenceyesterday after the marketsclosed."

"Oneof the biggest things we heard,as well from that, was that hesaid that the United Stateswould respond even more forcefully if Iran tried toupend the world's global oilsupply," Treene added, "and he saidsimultaneously, you knowprojecting that this would stillbe a short timeline. So a lot ofquestions, of course, I thinkmore questions than answers after that press conferenceyesterday. We'll have to seehow the Pentagon really respondsto all of this in an hour or so."

Sidner attempted to sum up her colleague's reporting.

"It certainly eyebrow-raisingwhen you hear him say, well, itcould take longer because we'rerebuilding a country which isnation building, which meansregime change, which means thiscould go on and on and on," Sidner said. "A lotof confusion as to exactly thetimeline here, and hopefullywe'll hear something about thisduring the Pentagon pressconference."

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