If words won wars, Donald Trump’s Iran conflict would have ended long ago.
But the president still can’t find a way out of a war meant to last no more than a month and a half that is now grinding into its 10th week.
Trump is ensnared by two traps of his own making — one geopolitical and the other domestic. Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and refusal to fold mean he can’t definitively end the war at an acceptable military price.
And as the conflict drags on, its political impact at home further narrows his options. With an approval rating in the 30s, gas prices averaging over $4.50 a gallon and public opposition to the war rising, he’s got no political space to continue waging it.
So Trump is stuck — a reality that helps explain his incessantly upbeat claims of progress in peace talks and tendency to announce or change military strategies with no warning.
