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Welcome back to Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Situation Report.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what\u2019s on tap for the day: U.S. President Donald Trump<\/strong> gives his first speech about the Iran war <\/strong>in more than a month, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi <\/strong>gets her walking papers, and Israel <\/strong>passes a controversial death penalty <\/strong>law targeting Palestinians<\/strong>.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s rare prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday was billed as a major update on the Iran war\u2019s progress, and financial markets rallied on hopes that he would provide a clear plan and timeline for ending the war.<\/p>\n Yet Trump spent most of the short, roughly 20-minute speech reiterating assertions that he has repeatedly made in interviews and on social media in recent weeks, proclaiming victory over Iran while also saying that the war will continue and offering only a vague timeline for when he intends to conclude it.<\/p>\n Despite the shifting and sometimes contradictory justifications<\/a> that the Trump administration has provided for starting this war a month ago, Trump outlined \u201csimple and clear\u201d objectives, including the destruction of Iran\u2019s navy, air force, and missile stockpiles, which he said will \u201cdeny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n Notably, Trump did not mention a possible operation to seize Iran\u2019s stockpile of the highly enriched uranium<\/a> that it could use to build such a bomb, claiming instead that the \u201cnuclear dust\u201d is inaccessible to the Iranian regime because the U.S. military had \u201cobliterated\u201d it in airstrikes last June. Trump also said that regime change had not been a goal of the war but that \u201cregime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders\u2019 death.\u201d<\/p>\n As for what comes next\u2014and when\u2014Trump offered few definitive answers to the American people and the rest of the world. \u201cI can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America\u2019s military objectives shortly. Very shortly,\u201d he said. However, he said that the United States was \u201cgoing to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks\u201d and \u201cbring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong\u201d\u2014but also that \u201cdiscussions are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Troop tallies. <\/strong>Meanwhile, the number of U.S. troops headed to the region continues to increase by the week. A third U.S. aircraft carrier\u2014the USS George H.W. Bush<\/em>\u2014began deploying<\/a> to the region on Tuesday. When it arrives in the Middle East\u2014which is expected to take several weeks<\/a>\u2014it will add roughly 6,000 troops to the more than 50,000<\/a> that are already taking part in the operation against Iran.<\/p>\n The new carrier deployment comes as thousands of additional Marines and U.S. Army paratroopers<\/a> have begun arriving in the Middle East. The USS Tripoli<\/em> Amphibious Ready Group, composed of roughly 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the region on March 27<\/a>. Several hundred U.S. special operations forces also reportedly arrived in the region in recent days. The USS Boxer<\/em> Amphibious Ready Group, which brings with it around 2,500 Marines, is still in transit<\/a>.<\/p>\n The administration is also reportedly mulling over sending 10,000 more ground troops. This could bring the total number of U.S. ground troops in the region to around 17,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n NATO reprieve. <\/strong>This week, Trump (again<\/a>) threatened to withdraw from<\/a> NATO over member countries\u2019 refusals to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But despite having raged about this for days now, Trump didn\u2019t mention the alliance by name in his speech, saying only that the \u201ccountries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of those countries may be preparing to do exactly that, with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer convening<\/a> a group of 40 countries\u2014minus the United States\u2014on Thursday to discuss strategies to reopen the strait.<\/p>\n But Trump also posited another theory on Wednesday night. \u201cIn any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pam Bondi was ousted as attorney general on Thursday; Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will replace her as the United States\u2019 top cop for now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,\u201d Trump said<\/a> in a Truth Social post. Trump was reportedly frustrated<\/a> with Bondi for not moving faster to achieve his goals, including prosecuting political adversaries.<\/p>\n Reports also suggest that Trump is considering replacing Tulsi Gabbard<\/a> as director of national intelligence, which is partly linked to him being unhappy over her recent testimony to Congress<\/a> on the Iran war.<\/p>\n U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and take immediate retirement, CBS News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n What should be high on your radar, if it isn\u2019t already.<\/em><\/p>\n Israel\u2019s death penalty.<\/strong> The Israeli Knesset passed<\/a> a controversial law on March 30 that makes death by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks. Critics have decried the new law, which was pushed by the far-right Jewish Power party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, as discriminatory and inhumane. That\u2019s in part because it applies the death penalty in attacks intended to \u201cnegate the existence of the state of Israel,\u201d effectively excluding Jewish Israelis convicted of similar crimes.<\/p>\n U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk said in a statement<\/a> on Tuesday that the law is \u201cpatently inconsistent with Israel\u2019s international law obligations,\u201d adding that it \u201craises serious concerns about due process violations, is deeply discriminatory, and must be promptly repealed.\u201d Allies of Israel, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany, urged the country not to enact the law prior to it being passed. Eight Muslim-majority countries also condemned the law<\/a> in a joint statement released by Pakistan on Thursday. The Trump administration has not been among the law\u2019s critics, with the State Department stating<\/a> that it \u201crespects Israel\u2019s sovereign right to determine its own laws.\u201d<\/p>\n Drones and the U.S. homeland. <\/strong>As Iranian drones cause myriad problems for U.S. forces and their allies in the Middle East amid Operation Epic Fury, unmanned aerial vehicles are also a growing domestic concern. The Pentagon is reportedly considering<\/a> sending an anti-drone laser system to Fort McNair, the military base in Washington where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio live. Unidentified drones were recently sighted<\/a> above the base.<\/p>\n There were also drone incursions over the course of a week in March at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, which is home to dozens of nuclear-capable bombers. The unauthorized drones were seemingly resistant to jamming, which suggests that they were more sophisticated than the types used by hobbyists. A confidential briefing document obtained by ABC News<\/a> suggested that the drone operators may have been \u201ctesting security responses\u201d at the base.<\/p>\n But Trump said this week that he was \u201cnot concerned<\/a>\u201d about the drone sightings over Barksdale. Meanwhile, experts have expressed serious concerns<\/a> about the U.S. homeland\u2019s vulnerabilities to drones. John recently wrote about this, which you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n