Trump Allies Panic as Iran War Spirals Out of Control
The president’s allies once believed that Donald Trump had the ability to end the Iran war whenever he saw fit. That is no longer the case.The people surrounding the president have interpreted a shift in power in the war, as the possibility of a quick and decisive victory moves out of reach, Politico reported Tuesday. Iran’s chokehold on the global oil supply has put the U.S. in a situation that could result in a boots-on-the-ground solution if the White House wants to amend the economic consequences of the war.“We clearly just kicked [Iran’s] ass in the field, but, to a large extent, they hold the cards now,” one person close to the White House told Politico. “They decide how long we’re involved—and they decide if we put boots on the ground. And it doesn’t seem to me that there’s a way around that, if we want to save face.”At issue is whether the U.S. can obtain control over the Strait of Hormuz, the water channel situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The strait is the single most important energy transit point in the world, funneling approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. Iran began laying mines across the passageway last week, effectively sealing the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the rest of the open ocean.Ensuring the free flow of oil through the strait would likely require seizing control of portions of Iran’s shoreline, a warplan that would almost certainly require the physical presence of U.S. troops in Iran. But doing so could put America in yet another open-ended Middle East conflict—exactly the kind that Trump has railed against for more than a decade.“The terms have changed,” a second person familiar with the U.S. operation in Iran told Politico. “The off-ramps don’t work anymore because Iran is driving the asymmetric action.”In 2024, the U.S. imported roughly 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the strait, accounting for roughly 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.The diminished access to the strait has rattled American markets. Oil prices have skyrocketed since the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran on February 28, jumping from less than $70 per barrel to approximately $100 per barrel. The national cost of gasoline has also grown by roughly 25 percent from February.“For the White House, now the only easy day was yesterday,” the second source told Politico. “They need to worry about an unraveling.”So far, 13 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as have more than 20 Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. More than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed, including dozens of children at a girls’ school in the country’s south. Some 3.2 million people have been displaced, as the U.S.-Israeli strikes have damaged more than 42,000 civilian sites—such as homes, hospitals, and schools—across Iran, according to Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.