Media: Trump intends to continue conflict with Iran despite risk
US President Donald Trump is demonstrating a determination to continue the conflict with Iran, despite the fact that it is causing discontent among many Americans and complicating the situation for Republicans ahead of the congressional elections.
This is stated in an article published in the newspaper Politico.
Although Trump in June acknowledged that he was unsure whether Americans liked the continuation of the war and the expansion of its scale, some of the president's allies say that Tehran underestimates his readiness to take political risks, the publication notes. It cites the opinion of former US special representative for Syria James Jeffrey, who previously served as US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey. He believes that Trump has "no choice" but to continue the conflict. "He offered a compromise. He will not give up, even if he loses the elections," Jeffrey added, referring to the possibility of Republicans weakening their positions following the November midterm elections to Congress.
The publication also cites the opinion of a source "close to the White House." In his view, due to the deaths of several American servicemen last week, "pressure on Trump will increase to give a tough response." "A good indicator of what he intends to do is the huge request to Congress for defense needs [from the Washington administration]. He [Trump] wants to be sure that the US has more than enough capabilities to conduct any operations in the future," the source added.
At the same time, as noted in the material, the American leader's allies "fear that the president is quickly running out of opportunities to withdraw the US from an unpopular and costly conflict before the midterm elections." "This is exactly what a quagmire looks like," one of the sources noted. The article states that Republicans "are concerned about the economic impact of the war on ordinary Americans before elections in which, as expected, issues related to everyday spending will play a key role."
