WASHINGTON
\nA complex tug-of-war inside the White House is driving US President Donald Trump\u2019s shifting public statements on the course of the Iran war, as aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East.
\nSome officials and advisers are warning Trump that surging gasoline prices could exact a political cost from the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, while some hawks are pressing the president to maintain the offensive against the Islamic Republic, according to interviews with a Trump adviser and others close to the deliberations.
\nTheir observations to Reuters offer a previously unreported glimpse inside White House decision-making as it adjusts its approach to the biggest US military operation since the 2003 Iraq war. The behind-the-scenes maneuvering underscores the high stakes Trump, who returned to office last year promising to avoid \u201cstupid\u201d military interventions, faces nearly two weeks after plunging the nation into a war that has rattled global financial markets and disrupted the international oil trade.
\nThe jockeying for Trump\u2019s ear is a feature of his presidency, but this time the consequences are a matter of war and peace in one of the world\u2019s most volatile and economically critical regions. Shifting from the sweeping goals he framed in launching the war on February 28, Trump in recent days has emphasized that he views the conflict as a limited campaign whose objectives have mostly been met.
\nBut the message remains unclear to many, including the energy markets, which have lurched in both directions in response to Trump\u2019s statements. He told a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on Wednesday that \u201cwe won\u201d the war, then abruptly pivoted: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to leave early, do we? We\u2019ve got to finish the job.\u201d
\nEconomic advisers and officials, including from the Treasury Department and the National Economic Council, have warned Trump that an oil shock and rising gasoline prices could quickly erode domestic support for the war, said the adviser and two others close to the deliberations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
\nPolitical advisers, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief James Blair, are making similar arguments, focusing on the political fallout from higher gas prices and urging Trump to define victory narrowly and signal the operation is limited and nearly finished, the sources said.
\nPushing in the other direction are hawkish voices urging Trump to sustain military pressure on Iran, including Republican lawmakers such as US Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, and media commentators such as Mark Levin, according to people familiar with the matter. They argue the US must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and respond forcefully to attacks on American troops and shipping.
\nA third force comes from Trump\u2019s populist base and figures such as strategist Steve Bannon and right-wing television personality Tucker Carlson, who have been pressing him and his top aides to avoid getting dragged into another prolonged Middle East conflict.
\n\u201cHe is allowing the hawks to believe the campaign continues, wants markets to believe the war might end soon and his base to believe escalation will be limited,\u201d the Trump adviser said. Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: \u201cThis story is based on gossip and speculation from anonymous sources who aren\u2019t even in the room for any discussions with President Trump.
\n\u201cThe President is known for being a good listener and seeking the opinions of many people, but ultimately everyone knows he\u2019s the final decision maker and his own best messenger,\u201d she said. \u201cThe President\u2019s entire team is focused on ensuring the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved.\u201d
\nOther people named for their roles in the deliberations did not immediately respond to Reuters\u2019 questions.
\nLooking for an exit In taking America to war, Trump offered little explanation, and the administration\u2019s stated war aims have ranged from thwarting an imminent attack by Iran to crippling its nuclear program to replacing its government.
\nAs he seeks an exit from an unpopular conflict, Trump is trying to juggle competing narratives that some critics say have complicated an already difficult situation, with Iran defiant despite the devastating US-Israeli air assault.
\nTop political aides and economic advisers, whose warnings before the war of the potential economic shock were largely ignored, appear to have played a major role in pushing Trump\u2019s efforts this week to reassure skittish markets and contain rising oil and gas prices.
\nHis public shift to downplaying the war\u2019s impact, describing it as a \u201cshort-term excursion,\u201d and his insistence that gas price hikes would be short-lived appeared aimed at calming fears of an open-ended conflict.
\nSome top aides have advised him to work toward a conclusion to the conflict that he can call a triumph, at least militarily, the sources said, even if much of the Iranian leadership survives, along with remnants of a nuclear program that the campaign was meant to target.
\nWave after wave of US and Israeli air strikes have killed a number of top Iranian leaders amon some 2,000 people overall \u2013 some as far away as Lebanon \u2013 devastated its ballistic missile arsenal, sunk much of its navy and degraded its ability to support armed proxies around the Middle East. But the military achievements have been seriously undercut by Iran\u2019s stepped-up attacks on oil tankers and transport facilities in the Gulf, driving up oil prices.
\nTrump has said he will decide when to end the campaign. He and his aides say they are far ahead of the four- to six-week timeframe Trump initially announced.The shifting reasons for launching the conflict, which has spilled over into more than half a dozen other countries, have only made it more difficult to predict what comes next.
\nFor their part, Iran\u2019s rulers will claim victory, analysts say, for simply surviving the US-Israeli onslaught, especially after demonstrating their ability to fight back and inflict damage on Israel, the US and its allies.
\nCritical to the war\u2019s final trajectory will be the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world\u2019s oil shipments, which normally traverses the narrow waterway, has come to a near-standstill. Iran in recent days has struck tankers in Iraqi waters and other ships near the strait, and the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to keep it shut.
\nIf Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the waterway pushes US gas prices high enough, that could increase political pressure on Trump to end the military campaign to help his Republican Party, which is defending narrow majorities in Congress in November\u2019s midterm elections.
\nTrump has recently refrained from pushing the idea that the war seeks to topple the government in Tehran. US intelligence indicates that Iran\u2019s leadership is not at risk of collapse anytime soon, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
\nAt least some of the confusion over the war\u2019s trajectory appears rooted in the quick US military success in Venezuela.Since the start of the war, some aides have struggled to convince Trump that the Iran campaign was unlikely to unfold in the same way as the January 3 Venezuela raid that captured President Nicolas Maduro, according to another source familiar with the administration\u2019s thinking.
\nThat operation opened the way for Trump to coerce former Maduro loyalists into giving him considerable sway over the country\u2019s vast oil reserves \u2013 without requiring extended US military action.Iran, by contrast, has proved a much tougher, better-armed foe with an entrenched clerical and security establishment.
\nExperts have rejected claims by Trump aides that Iran had been within weeks of being able to produce a nuclear weapon, despite the president\u2019s insistence in June that US-Israeli bombing had \u201cobliterated\u201d its nuclear program.
\nMost of Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to have been buried by the June strikes, meaning the material potentially could be retrieved and purified to bomb grade. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.
\nIf the war drags on, American casualties mount and the economic costs multiply, some analysts say it could erode backing from Trump\u2019s political base. But despite criticism from some supporters opposed to military interventions, members of his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement have so far largely stayed with him on Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON A complex tug-of-war inside the White House is driving US President Donald Trump\u2019s shifting public statements on the course of the Iran war, as aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East. Some officials and advisers are warning Trump that surging gasoline prices could exact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-536501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n