WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Top aides to US President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November’s midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, four people familiar with the discussions said, a strategy that is already under strain as the United States and Iran resume their back-and-forth attacks.
White House officials will consider ramping up military action after the November 3 vote, said the sources, who requested anonymity to describe internal thinking, though any return to full-scale conflict is far from a given.
For now, they said, the administration is focused on tightening the economic pressure on Iran in an effort to extract concessions in any future negotiation that months of military action failed to secure.
“We are keeping the pressure on Iran,” one White House official said. “But November is a priority.”
Keeping the war mostly contained until then would help prevent the unpopular conflict from dominating the news as Trump’s Republicans campaign to defend thin majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, said the sources, three of whom are White House officials.
