President Trump is increasingly fighting the Iran war on two fronts, battling a defiant Islamic regime that is 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. Several Republicans joined 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 as he tries to finalize an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
On Friday, Mr. Trump said Iranian leaders have resisted a peace deal with the U.S. out of a sense of national defiance, but insisted that economic realities will ultimately force Tehran’s hand.
“They’re strong, they’re proud, there are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” the president told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
Any potential peace deal is also complicated by Israel’s continued actions in Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes hit inside Beirut on Sunday, days after a Trump-brokered ceasefire took effect and despite requests from the U.S. administration that Israel pause the attacks on Lebanon.
Iran responded Sunday with the first major missile attack on Israel since the fragile ceasefire took effect.
Some experts say the conundrum facing the administration is familiar, 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 [would] rather they be the paragon of venality.”
Mr. Rubin said the trend is “not a Trump or anti-Trump thing,” but a deeper issue that has affected 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 said 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 obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, recently flipped her vote and joined Democrats in voting to restrain Mr. Trump’s war powers. She said 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 to lift the U.S. blockade, restore maritime transit and lay the groundwork for high-level nuclear talks.
He said 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 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 cleared the Senate, so his primary concern is the impact on negotiations.
Democrats defended their moves by saying they were 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 liquefied 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 enforcing rival blockades in the same waters. Washington hopes 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 revenue, inflation and rampant unemployment because of the blockade, but they are 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 Friday, down 17 cents from a week ago but up 42% from when the war began, according to AAA.
“Both Iran and the U.S. have confidence the other side will blink first,” said David Schenker, the Taube senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern 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 more than 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 with 23% who backed it.
Republicans have generally supported Mr. Trump’s Iran operation, though independents — including Republican-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 the United States 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.”
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