Trump says Iran war will end soon, claims Tehran wants a deal but lacks leaders

Update, 30 October, 15:08 Israel time

Further remarks from the same radio interview have been reported. According to a Hebrew-language alert from N12's foreign desk, Trump said that fuel and oil prices would drop quickly once the war is over. N12 also reported that he described the Iranians as lacking leadership and said it was unclear with whom Washington should be talking. In N12's account, Trump said Iran wants a deal but maintained that the United States insists on guarantees over nuclear weapons, and that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

Other outlets have now carried the core remarks. Haaretz published a Reuters item quoting Trump as saying the war would "get wrapped up soon" and that Washington needs an assurance Tehran will never get a nuclear weapon. The Jerusalem Post also reported the quote, noting that he spoke ahead of the midterm elections.

The comments on oil prices, Iran's leadership and Iran's interest in a deal come from N12 alone at this stage; neither Reuters nor The Jerusalem Post included them in the material available. N12 did not name the radio station. No reaction from the Israeli or Iranian governments has been reported.

The story as first reported

US President Donald Trump said in a radio interview that he expects the war with Iran to end soon, while giving no indication of how that outcome would be reached. The Times of Israel reported that Trump made the remarks to KCMO, a radio station in Kansas City, and that he said: "It's going to get wrapped up soon." In the same interview, the paper reported, he also said the United States required an assurance that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli news site Ynet carried the statement as a breaking alert on its Telegram channel, quoting Trump in Hebrew translation as saying the war in Iran would end soon. The Ynet alert was a single line and did not include further detail. The remarks came ahead of the US midterm congressional elections, which the Times of Israel noted are set for November 3.

What Trump has said before

According to the Times of Israel, this was not the first time in recent weeks that the president has signalled an approaching end to the conflict. The paper reported that Trump has said on several occasions that the United States and Israel will soon "finish the job" in Iran. On none of those occasions, it said, did he make clear whether he had diplomatic steps or military action in mind.

The paper also reported that Trump has said the United States would not carry out a strike on Iran before the elections. Read together, those two positions leave the timing and form of any conclusion open: the president has ruled out one kind of action during the campaign period while repeatedly saying the war will end soon.

The nuclear question

The one condition Trump attached to his remarks in this interview concerned nuclear weapons. His stated requirement was a guarantee that Iran would never have one. He did not say, in the material reported, what form such a guarantee would take, who would provide it, or how it would be verified. He also did not say whether that guarantee was a precondition for ending the war or a goal to be pursued afterwards.

Why this matters to readers following Israel

For an audience watching Israel from abroad, the significance lies in the joint framing. The president has described ending the conflict as something the United States and Israel will do together, according to the Times of Israel's account of his earlier statements. Any decision about how the war concludes, whether through negotiation or further military action, would therefore bear directly on Israel's security situation.

The timing is also notable for domestic politics on both sides. The remarks were made in the run-up to the American midterms. The same Times of Israel liveblog was running coverage of a 2026 Israeli election, meaning that leaders in both countries are speaking about the Iran war during campaign periods.

About the outlets

Ynet is an Israeli news site that publishes short breaking alerts in Hebrew through a Telegram channel. The Times of Israel is an English-language Israeli news site that runs a continuously updated liveblog, where this item appeared. KCMO, the station that conducted the interview, is based in Kansas City, according to the Times of Israel.

What the reports do not say

Several questions are left unanswered by the available reports:

• How the war would end. Trump did not say whether he expects a negotiated settlement, a military conclusion or some combination of the two.
• What "soon" means. No timeframe was given beyond the word itself.
• The nuclear guarantee. The reports do not describe what assurance Trump would accept or from whom.
• Israel's response. Neither report includes any reaction from the Israeli government to the remarks.
• Iran's position. Neither report includes any Iranian response.
• The full interview. Only brief quotations have been reported, so the wider context of Trump's comments to KCMO is not known from this material.

Both reports agree on the core statement that Trump expects the war to end soon. The fuller detail, including the nuclear condition and his earlier comments, comes from the Times of Israel alone.