President Trump is increasingly fighting the Iran war on two fronts, battling a defiant Islamic regime that’s stringing out peace talks and grappling with growing domestic pushback because of higher prices and anti-war sentiment.
Polling shows many Americans oppose the war and want it to end quickly, and several Republicans linked arms with House Democrats in this midterm election year to approve a resolution that would rein in presidential war powers.
The dynamic ensnares Mr. Trump in a paradox. Americans’ eagerness to wind down the war is weakening the president’s negotiating position, even as he tries to finalize an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Some experts say the conundrum is a familiar one, given growing U.S. partisanship.
“The United States is no longer capable of winning wars because partisans [would] rather attack the incumbent party than see their opponent win a victory,” said Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “America was always the leader of the free world, but that is ending because Congress rather they be the paragon of venality.”
He said the trend is “not a Trump or anti-Trump thing,” but a deeper issue that’s impacted presidents since the Clinton administration.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump pitched the Iran operation as a short-term “excursion” that would last weeks.
Mr. Trump says the U.S. won the military aspect of the war that began Feb. 28 by decimating Iran’s navy and senior leadership, turning the conflict into a battle of economic will and negotiations to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Yet Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, recently flipped her vote and joined Democrats in voting to restrain Mr. Trump’s war powers, saying it did not appear that hostilities had ended and Congress must weigh in.
Mr. Trump is trying to finalize a memorandum of understanding with Iran that would lift the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and reopen the Strait of Hormuz while setting the table for final talks over Tehran’s nuclear program.
He says repeated votes in Congress to end hostilities are counterproductive because they are unfolding “right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social after the House voted, 215-208, on Wednesday to end the war — the latest in a string of war-powers resolutions since the start of the Iran conflict.
Mr. Trump would veto the House resolution if it got through the Senate, so his primary concern is the potential impact on negotiations.
Democrats defended their moves, saying they are trying to rein in damage from the conflict.
“Iran is in a stronger position now than what they were prior to the start of this war, and of course, this war is increasing gas prices and putting economic pressure on the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, told CNN on Friday. “We’re continuing to do what we need to do aggressively to push back against Donald Trump.”
The president says he is prepared to finish off Iran militarily, but doing so risks deepening the conflict and increasing domestic and global blowback alongside lingering economic fallout.
He wants to find a diplomatic solution and hopes that his economic pressure on Iran, through sanctions and blockade of maritime ports, results in better terms for the U.S.
“Iran’s economy is floundering and its military is decimated,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday in announcing a round of sanctions on a “shadow fleet” that sent Iranian liquid petroleum gas to Asia. “Through Economic Fury, Treasury will continue to sever Iran’s shadow fleet, shadow banking networks, and access to global trade.”
The U.S. and Iran are operating rival blockades in the same waters, with Washington hoping to crush Tehran’s economy by turning away any ships entering and exiting Iran’s ports.
Iran, meanwhile, has kept the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, closed for more than three months. Its closure had put dramatic pressure on international oil and gas prices.
Iranian leaders are dealing with declining revenues, inflation and rampant unemployment because of the blockade. But they’re keenly aware of American pushback to the war and rising gas prices in the U.S.
The average U.S. gas price stood at $4.22 per gallon on Friday, down 17 cents from a week ago but up 42% from when the war began, according to the AAA motor club.
“Both Iran and the U.S. have confidence the other side will blink first,” said David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. “The president can wait longer to see if the blockade moves the needle, but the continued crisis is increasing the likelihood of recession. The president’s choices are less than optimal.”
A recent poll from The Economist/YouGov found 60% of Americans opposed the war and over two-thirds wanted it to end quickly. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from May found 52% of Americans believe the military action in Iran has not been worth it, compared to 23% who backed it.
Republicans have generally supported Mr. Trump’s Iran operation, though independents — including GOP-leaning independents — are divided.
“President Trump isn’t unique in having to contend with the implications of war at home and abroad. On the domestic front, Trump has come under criticism from both the left and right,” Mr. Schenker said. “Perhaps a bigger consideration for the president than domestic critics is the concern that his deal with Iran will spark comparisons to Obama.”
Mr. Trump, in his first term, withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. He insists a new deal will be tougher.
“The Obama deal, I terminated that, or they would have had a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Trump said Thursday.
The president said his deal is “the exact opposite,” and Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon.”
