Trump turns to containing the fallout from setbacks in Iran
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Trump → turn → Iran
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- White House officials are betting the risks to Tehran are greater than the political costs Trump will incur in the midterm elections.
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Trump → click → elections
The administration has relied on expensive, long-range weapons, leading to critical shortages of drones, missiles and defense systems.
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administration → rely → drones
Approaching six months of war with Iran after predicting a six-week campaign, President Trump has few options before him to bring the conflict to a close.
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Trump → approach → close
But some experts believe a new strategy emerging from his administration could avert a more consequential defeat.
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strategy → believe → defeat
The president has repeatedly flirted with broadening the assault, hoping yet another round of bombardment might force Iran to yield.
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round → flirt → Iran
Yet he has ultimately resisted, once again stepping back this month from options to expand strikes across Iran’s critical infrastructure and leadership.
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he → resist → infrastructure
And he has refrained since the beginning of the war from ordering a ground operation that would expose U.S. troops to direct attack, faced with dwindling U.S. munitions stockpiles and an entrenched Iranian government willing to retaliate.
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that → refrain → stockpiles
The result has been a U.S. campaign that has failed to achieve any of Trump’s stated war aims — of regime change in Tehran, the elimination of Iran’s ballistic missile and naval capabilities, and the end of its nuclear program — but has also avoided the costs of uncontrolled escalation, experts said.
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experts → fail → escalation
In remarks Friday, Trump said the United States was still in the process of “defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated.”
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which → say → Iran
“We have the blockade.
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We → have → blockade
No ships get through,” he said.
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he → get → ?
“They still have missiles, but not a lot.
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They → have → missiles
They still have drones, but just a fraction of what they had.
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they → have → what
But their manufacturing is largely gone.
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manufacturing → go → ?
“We’re winning big with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.
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he → win → Iran
“Nobody has any idea how successful we are — they don’t want to write it.
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they → have → it
But they know.
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they → know → ?
You know who knows how well we’re doing?
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we → know → ?
In an interview published last week, Trump explained his decision not to proceed with expanded strikes, telling Axios, “we are low-keying it.”
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we → publish → it
“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” he said.
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he → - → them
“We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
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they → watch → money
President Trump railed against “forever wars,” but with hostilities increasing and negotiations at a standstill, there appears no easy exit from the war he launched on Iran.
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he → rail → Iran
It is a shift from an instinctual posture to one of restraint uncharacteristic of a president who launched the war in February after consulting a mere handful of people, including Israel’s prime minister and fewer than a dozen of his closest aides.
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who → launch → aides
The current approach — an economic choke hold on Iran — is being led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was not involved in Trump’s prewar deliberations.
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who → lead → deliberations
“The options are escalating militarily, conceding Iranian victory through a phony negotiation, or continuing the economic pressure we have in place.
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we → escalate → place
The president’s problem is that he can’t simply choose — the ayatollah gets a vote,” said Elliott Abrams, a veteran diplomat who served under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush, as well as under Trump in his first term.
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who → choose → term
“Trump has to choose now between sticking to the blockade and the risks it brings — including high oil prices and a loss in the midterm elections — or accepting defeat by Iran and the risks that brings,” he added, “to our friends and allies and to his own reputation.”
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he → have → reputation
White House officials are betting the risks to Tehran, from soaring inflation and a shortage of goods, are greater than the political costs Trump will incur at the ballot box in November during the midterm elections, with oil prices holding stable under $100 a barrel since mid-July.
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prices → bet → July
“We have the ability to accept costs because our resources are great.
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resources → have → costs
Iran does not, because theirs are few,” said Barry Posen, a political science professor at MIT.
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Posen → say → MIT
And while restraint may not end the conflict on Trump’s preferred terms, it could prevent the kind of open-ended escalation that pulled the United States deeper into costly quagmires in Vietnam and Iraq, said Michael O’Hanlon, director of research in the Brookings Institution’s foreign policy program.
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O’Hanlon → end → program
“He has resisted that temptation so far,” O’Hanlon said.
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O’Hanlon → resist → temptation
“In this regard, he is showing greater humanity and greater thoughtfulness than either of those two American presidents during the Vietnam War.
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he → show → War
And he has avoided the mistakes of George W. Bush in launching big ground wars without adequate planning or preparation.
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he → avoid → planning
“It’s troubling, and far from victory,” O’Hanlon added, “but also far from quagmire or defeat.”
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O’Hanlon → ’ → quagmire
Trump’s reluctance to escalate has so far averted a high U.S. casualty count in the war.
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reluctance → escalate → war
According to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, 18 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds have been wounded since the start of operations against Iran.
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hundreds → accord → Iran
But his reticence to deploy additional U.S. troops within striking distance of Tehran — and the need to protect those already stationed across the region — has forced the administration to rely on long-range weapons systems that cost tens of millions of dollars and require complex international supply chains to produce, leading to critical shortages of drones, missiles and defense systems as the conflict continues longer than planned.
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conflict → deploy → drones
Abdul El-Sayed made history this month in Michigan by becoming the first Muslim nominated by the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate
“Even limited operations, such as the air wars over Kosovo and Libya, dragged on much longer than policymakers expected, and the U.S. ran short of critical precision guided weapons,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security.
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Pettyjohn → make → Security
…and 7 more, not listed.
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