Donald Trump is increasingly desperate to put an end to a war he started that is now threatening his party’s prospects in November’s midterm elections.
“Even as Trump asked about resuming the bombing campaign, officials said he seemed wary about restarting hostilities and prolonging a conflict that is deeply unpopular with the American public,” the Wall Street Journal reports, citing White House sources on “a series of frenzied meetings” on Tuesday about the president’s war with Iran.
Those discussions came after Vice President JD Vance had waited much of the day to depart for the Pakistani capital Islamabad for the latest round of negotiations with Iranian officials, only for Iran to pull out of the meeting just hours before a deadline set by Trump two weeks ago.
The president has since extended the ceasefire indefinitely, or at least until the Islamic regime presents a “unified proposal” for how to resolve the conflict he launched on Feb. 28.
Officials reportedly told the president ahead of that announcement that, following U.S. and Israeli assassinations of multiple top Iranian leadership figures, “Iran’s government wasn’t a unified entity, with hardline factions in Tehran unwilling to bend to the president’s demands.”
They further explained that there remained uncertainty over “whether Iran was really even in a position to negotiate and stick to any commitments” as Trump weighed resuming attacks against the country, as he previously promised he would.
In the end, “Trump and his team split the difference,” the WSJ writes. The White House has now resolved to “maintain pressure on Iran indefinitely” until a “concrete offer” materializes, at which point the president will make a call on whether to accept it or resume bombing the country.
Prospects of an imminent proposal seem remote. Iran responded to the deadline’s passing by opening fire on two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital naval corridor the Islamic Republic has effectively shuttered since the conflict started, in a sharp riposte to U.S. efforts to resume negotiations.
The internal White House discussions on Tuesday, for all their “frenzied” tenor, appear to have followed a decidedly calmer track than talks in the aftermath of an Iranian attack that downed a U.S. fighter jet on April 3, leaving two airmen missing in action.
Trump threw such a tantrum during the rescue operation, the WSJ later reported, that his own officials saw fit to expel him from the briefing room as they coordinated efforts to retrieve the two service personnel stranded behind enemy lines.
That meltdown came after Trump admitted to the newspaper earlier in March that he was increasingly wary of a repeat of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, and how the failure to secure the release of American diplomats and consulate staff captured by Iranian student militants ultimately sank President Jimmy Carter’s re-election bid the following year.
“If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter… with the helicopters and the hostages, it cost them the election,” Trump told the Journal. “What a mess.”
The president’s own crisis in U.S.-Iran relations comes just months ahead of what already promises to be a bruising battle for Republicans to retain control of the House and Senate.
Polls have consistently shown Democrats hold an almost 6-point lead over the GOP in voter intentions ahead of November’s midterms.
Those numbers reflect just how profoundly unpopular Trump’s war with Iran has proven with the electorate, and how a slew of other scandals, ranging from the Epstein files furor to his feud with Pope Leo XIV, has turned voters off him.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
