Trump Declares Iran War 'Very Complete, Pretty Much' Days After Demanding 'Total Surrender'

President Donald Trump signaled on Monday that he's nearly done with his unprovoked and unconstitutional war against Iran, despite declaring mere days ago that he would only accept the country's "unconditional surrender."

In an interview with CBS News' Weijia Jiang, Trump said that the Iran war is "very complete, pretty much," then falsely claimed that US and Israeli strikes had eliminated Iran's navy and even its ability to communicate.

Jiang's reporting on Trump's declaration that the war was nearly over came just one hour after the US Department of Defense (DOD) posted a message on social media declaring, "We have Only Just Begun to Fight."

Additionally, noted journalist Yashar Ali, CBS News' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday in which he said that the war was still in its early days.

The president's abrupt shift in rhetoric about the war came hours after the prices of both Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil futures surged past $100 per barrel, as countries across the Middle East announced production cuts in the wake of chaos and destruction caused by the Iran war.

The impact of the price surge on the US stock market was immediate, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened Monday trading down by more than 600 points, while the Nasdaq dropped by 300 points.

In the wake of Trump's statement about the war being "pretty much" complete, shares on the US stock market rallied and oil futures began to drop.

Trump administration officials said that the initial goal of the attack was ending Iran's uranium enrichment program—and while they claimed it wasn't a "regime change" war, the president last month urged Iranians to "take over" their government. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday outlined a more modest set of goals that included destroying its navy and its missile launch capacity.

Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, argued that this set of goals showed "the Trump administration is admitting that they have strategically failed and this has been a disaster."

Political scientist Ian Bremmer also took note of Rubio's revised goals and said they make "declaring victory and ending war with Iran much easier."

However, just because Trump is saying he thinks the war is almost over doesn't mean that it will end soon. Iran has still shut the Strait of Hormuz, and it maintains the ability to launch drone attacks on energy infrastructure throughout the Middle East.