TRUMP EXTENDS WAR TIMELINE. If you had told Republican leaders on Feb. 28, the day President Donald Trump began the war in Iran, that the war would not be over by Memorial Day; that it would not be over by the 4th of July; that it would not be over by Labor Day; and that it would not be over by Election Day — those Republican leaders would likely have been horrified at the prospect of facing midterm voters amid an unresolved war that the president originally said would last just a few weeks.But that is where the GOP is today. As he headed to Dallas on Wednesday to open the Republican midterm convention, Trump described increased fighting with Iran and then made a prediction: “I think the war is going to end immediately after the election. I think the war will end immediately after the election. Because they can’t hold out any longer. They’re desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon. All they want is a nuclear weapon.”Iran, the president continued, “is in shambles right now.” Inflation is high. The government is not paying the military. It has lost full control of the Strait of Hormuz. But at a minimum, Iran is still able to keep up the war, and that means the economic effects of the war, most notably higher energy prices, will go on for a while.