The treasury secretary has pitched his own timeline for the Iran war.When asked by CNBC on Monday when the armed conflict would end, Scott Bessent insisted: “two weeks.”“Two weeks,” Bessent repeated. “I know the media likes to move things along, we see these headlines—and that’s part of the Iranian strategy. It’s very unfortunate that because of a dislike for President Trump—not you, but a lot of the mainstream media—are trying to make this into some crisis that it’s not.”It was not immediately clear what informed Bessent’s deadline, though his confidence in the long-term gains of the lethal conflict was not so steady.“And on the other side of this, if you look at longer-dated crude [oil prices], you look at future inflation expectations, they’re both very well anchored and, you know, this will end,” Bessent continued. He then proceeded to contradict himself: “I don’t know how many weeks it will be, but on the other side of this, the world will be safer and we will be better supplied.”Bessent is one of the first Trump administration officials to publicly pin down a potential end date for the war (even if he appeared to retract it soon after). In private, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials reportedly believe the conflict will continue for the next six months. That could change drastically, however, considering that Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly discussing putting boots on the ground in Iran—a drastic escalation that could embroil the U.S. in the conflict for much, much longer.Americans are just as conflicted on the war’s chronology. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 6–8 found that 71 percent of registered voters believe that the war will last longer than a few months, with 26 percent of voters convinced the war will last longer than a year.On Thursday, Bessent was abruptly yanked in the middle of a sit-down interview with Sky News to visit the Situation Room at the president’s request. “The president wants you right away,” an off-camera aide commanded. Bessent was visibly flustered when he returned about two hours later, volunteering unprompted details about one of his children’s supposed interest in joining the Iran war.Israel and the U.S. opened fire on Iran on February 28, sparking a regional conflict that has so far killed 13 U.S. soldiers and more than 20 Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The war has also claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Iranian civilians, including dozens of children at a girls’ school in the country’s south. Some 3.2 million people have been displaced, as U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 42,000 civilian sites—such as homes, hospitals, and schools—across Iran, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.