Since launching the war on Iran over one month ago, President Donald Trump has faced growing criticism as the consequences of the conflict have become apparent. Now following a flurry of confused messaging from Trump on Tuesday in which he suggested that the U.S. could withdraw and leave its allies to deal with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Wall Street Journal Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov has a frank assessment of the situation: the president’s actions “would be viewed, correctly, by Iran and much of the world as a strategic defeat of the United States.”
According to Trofimov, there are several clear signs that the war has been a loss for the U.S. and a win for the Iranian government.
“An Iranian regime that retains control over the Strait of Hormuz, gets paid for passage and chooses which nations can access the Persian Gulf will use this vital leverage (gifted by Trump) to pressure America’s European and Asian allies to lift sanctions, will coerce Gulf states, and will turn from a weakened regional pariah to the Middle East’s foremost power,” wrote Trofimov. “And yes, Iran is firing more missiles at Gulf states and Israel today than it was firing two weeks ago. Nowhere near defeated.”
He is not alone in this assessment. As Saager Enjeti, host of the popular political talk show Breaking Points, put it, “This unironically then is the beginning of the end of the U.S. empire: Militarily unable to collapse the Iranian regime from the air, sparking a global energy crisis for critical US allies and then telling them to go and fix the crisis we created.”
For Trump and the GOP, this disaster could have major political implications. The war was a key talking point for attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, with many expressing frustration at the situation.
“He campaigned on no new wars,” said 18-year-old political science student Alexander Selby. “A lot of people — conservatives, young conservatives right now are kind of disillusioned with Trump and I’d consider myself one of those.”
“He’s lied about everything,” said Joseph Bolick, a 30-year-old veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and voted for Trump. “If you go into a war where there’s no end game, how is it going to end? There’s no clear objective.”