President Trump and his administration officials are sending signals to the MAGA base that they want to calm the waters when it comes to rhetoric on Iran as the war grows unpopular with Republicans and the general public ahead of the midterms.
With the war wreaking havoc on energy prices, Trump, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, were front and center Tuesday trying to tone down their message on how they are handling the Strait of Hormuz, pivoting toward applying economic pressure on Tehran instead.
Rubio even went so far to suggest that Operation Epic Fury was “over.” In answering questions from reporters at the White House, he also swung back to the notion of stressing a diplomatic option being preferable unless the U.S. was attacked first, calling the operation defensive, not offensive.
All the rhetoric from the president and the administration, however, comes with the caveat that Iran must never continue to enrich uranium, something Tehran fiercely opposes. U.S. officials are demanding such enrichment not continue in order for Iran to never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.
But as threats from Iran escalated earlier this week, Trump notably opted not to take that opportunity to launch fresh attacks as a weeks-long ceasefire appears to be holding, which Hegseth maintained.
“No, the ceasefire is not over. Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project, and we expected there would be some churn at the beginning, which happened, and we said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have,” Hegseth said.
Trump insists Iran “wants to make a deal,” but Iranian officials publicly have denounced the U.S. operation as both sides appear as dug in as ever on their conflicting demands.
Some Republicans have noted the language from the White House is a result of the administration becoming more cautious as the conflict wages on, in particular after Trump informed Congress last week that the ongoing ceasefire extended the timeline between the start of the war and the 60-day deadline invoked by the War Powers Act.
“The administration is drawing a distinct line between the previous strikes on Iranian territory and what they’re trying to do in the straits and with the blockade. Treat them as separate,” said Cale Brown, former State Department principal deputy spokesperson during Trump’s first administration and chair of Polaris National Security.
Brown noted that the administration’s messaging on the matter is not necessarily new, arguing that Trump has always been cognizant of the risk of the U.S. entering prolonged foreign conflicts.
“I don’t think this is a change in the way he’s approaching it. The president has always been sensitive to the idea of long commitments. He messaged early on that we were going to go in there, we were going to hit Iran hard, and he always talked about it being a matter of weeks,” he said.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell argued the administration is trying to drive home dual messages: The war is in the best interests of the U.S., and it is not a forever war.
“This conflict is in the interest of America First. That’s why [Trump is] always like, ‘Hey, everybody else was an idiot. We should have done this 47 years ago,’” O’Connell said.
Still, the war remains largely unpopular to most Americans, with some polls now reflecting the Iran war is becoming as unpopular as the Vietnam War, which Trump is now starting to reference when talking about Iran.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last week found that 66 percent of Americans said they disapproved of how Trump is handling the war, while only 33 percent said they approved.
Still, the same poll showed majorities of Republicans sticking by the president on Iran. While 91 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents, a critical voting bloc, said it was a mistake to use military action in Iran, 79 percent of Republicans polled said they were on board with the decision. And notably, 86 percent of MAGA Republicans said they agreed with Trump’s decision to use military force in Iran.
When it comes to the operations in the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth for his part called it a “temporary solution” in terms of the U.S. offering to escort ships through the critical waterway, adding to the notion that perhaps the White House wants the war to wind down.
That effort does not entail dedicated U.S. escorts through the corridor, rather that U.S. ships will be in the area. The Wall Street Journal and Axios reported that the U.S. would provide commercial ships with information on safe lanes to pass through.
However, Iran’s military said it would not permit passage to American combat forces or commercial ships without its authorization. Iranian warships fired at U.S. warships and commercial vessels on Monday, but the U.S. so far has not responded with an attack.
While the war may be bad news for Republicans approaching the midterms, back at the White House, Rubio got a presidential tryout for 2028, fiercely defending the Iran operation and stressing that the U.S. had the upper hand.
“As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, the United States of America holds all the cards,” Rubio said in defending the U.S. position against Iran.
He also answered reporters in multiple languages, joked with the press by calling out reporters by the colors they were wearing and lamented that the press briefing amounted to “chaos.”
“Welcome to the White House,” one person from the crowd shouted out.
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