President Donald Trump promised that the Iran War would end "immediately after the election" during a tempestuous press conference on Wednesday.
Speaking outside of his plane that will soon whisk him away to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, Trump began with insults toward ABC News (which he described as "fake news"), a declaration that his war against Iran had destroyed their economy and an insistence that Americans should accept high oil prices so that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. Then he reassured the press that "I think the war is gonna end immediately after the election." He then repeated "I think the war will end immediately after the election."
Trump has struggled politically because of the Iran War, which was unpopular before he even declared it with American voters. In part, Trump is compensating for this issue by planning on rigging the midterm elections through methods ranging from interfering with mail-in ballots and interfering with state control of the electoral process to purging voters from the rolls. Yet despite these efforts, Trump continues to struggle with the Iran War not merely because he promised to keep America out of unnecessary wars during his 2024 campaign, but because the war has increased the inflation problem he inherited upon taking office.
“I would guess that yes, destruction of Iranian (and some other) energy facilities in the Persian Gulf area will have at least a medium-term effect keeping prices for crude oil and chemical fertilizer high, and that in turn means gasoline prices may come down only slowly,” Dr. Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute, told AlterNet in April. “Same for other petroleum-based products such as plastics, skin creams, and so on. The high potential of conflict also adds risk premiums to shipping and other costs.”
He added, “Longer-term, lots of open questions. One is whether the administration will really concede that Iran has a right to close the Strait of Hormuz and assess tolls on shipping passing through it. That would make the smaller Gulf monarchies and to some extent Iraq reliant on Iranian good will for all of their exports. Likewise, Asian countries are the main buyers of Persian Gulf energy, and their supplies would be much less secure.”
Trump has also indicated, through his cycling between bombing campaigns and pauses, that he has run out of options in terms of how to win the war.
"Foreign policy experts say the latest round of hostilities point to a reality that has become increasingly clear of Mr. Trump’s handling of the war: He has run out of options," reported by The New York Times' Erica L. Green last week. Green interviewed Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who worked for Trump's State Department during his first term.
“The strategy has been rinse and repeat, whether it’s rhetorical or kinetic action,” Bartlett told Green. “It’s been absolutely shocking how the United States has been exposed for a lack of a plan of engagement, and a lack of a plan to either win or exit this war.”
