Hebron, Kentucky —
President Donald Trump was touring a pharmaceutical company in Ohio Wednesday — trying again to turn attention to his domestic achievements — when talk again returned to the restive Middle East.
Was the conflagration a war, a reporter asked, or merely an “excursion,” as the president had just described it.
“Well, it’s both,” he explained.
“It’s an excursion that will keep us out of a war, and the war is going to be, I mean for them — it’s a war. For us, it’s turned out to be easier than we thought,” he continued.
For Americans eager for clarity on where, exactly, this is headed, it wasn’t much.
And for a president looking to present his best case on a conflict that has roiled markets and polls poorly, it was a window into a difficult political moment.
Wednesday’s two-state trip — first to Cincinnati and then a logistics facility in Kentucky, where he delivered remarks — was Trump’s first appearance before a crowd of his supporters since the conflict began late last month.
Even as the war has intensified, Trump has tried — at least occasionally — to maintain focus on the domestic priority his advisers believe is essential for GOP success in November’s midterm elections. Yet the war has badly complicated his attempts at an economic pivot. A spike in oil prices has driven gas prices higher, erasing a key talking point. Stock market see-saws, which Trump often views as a barometer for his policies, reflect concern among investors at where the world is headed.
And his confusing timelines about the conflict’s duration have done little to quiet the handwringing among nervous Republicans, many of whom have placed calls to Trump advisers encouraging a better messaging strategy, particularly around the price of oil, sources involved in and briefed on those conversations said.
Trump on Wednesday heralded an international agreement to release stockpiled oil reserves, arguing it would keep energy prices in check. And shortly after his remarks, the US Department of Energy announced the administration would release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting next week.
But while Trump also touted his drug pricing and housing plans and tax cuts on Wednesday, he kept getting pulled back to a foreign conflict that the Pentagon has told Congress cost at least $11 billion in its first six days.
“You never like to say too early, you’ve won. We won. We won. In the first hour it was over,” Trump told the Kentucky crowd.
But after praising the International Energy Agency’s announcement, which he said would “substantially reduce the oil prices,” Trump defended the ongoing conflict.
“We don’t want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job, right?”
In private, many Trump allies acknowledge the risk of political peril for the president and his party the longer the war persists. Many have encouraged the administration to offer clearer messaging about the goals of the war and the metrics for its success, hoping to offer concerned Americans a better picture of how it might end, sources familiar with the talks said.
A key throughline in the messaging has been for officials to clearly articulate that this is not 2003, and that the Trump administration has no plans for the nation building attempted in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, those sources said.
“People have long memories,” one administration official told CNN. “Getting entrenched in a long-term conflict is a real problem. But there isn’t as much heartburn over a several-week bombing campaign.”
The White House has also tried to ensure the president and other top officials do not put a definitive timeline on when to expect the war to be completed, the sources familiar said, so as not to box in the Trump administration as the military continues its operations.
Trump, after saying at the start of the war it could last more than a month, has since suggested it could wrap up much sooner, while at other times, signaled much more expansive goals that seem to undercut his advisers’ attempts to define a clear endgame.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who said last week that the war could last three to eight weeks, pulled back Tuesday, when he noted it was not for him to assess whether “it’s the beginning, the middle or the end” of the war.
“Any time I want it to end, it will end,” Trump told Axios Wednesday.
But many Republicans, including some who are up for reelection in November, fear that the muddled timelines from the president make it harder to convince voters this is not a “forever war.” One Trump ally said that there isn’t much more clarity behind the scenes.
The president has been shown some polling that reflects how many Americans are opposed to the war and are wary of the US being embroiled in another long-term military conflict in the Middle East.
Among those questioning the war is Rep. Thomas Massie, the Republican representing this Kentucky district, whom Trump has come to despise. “I just want to say this, Thomas Massie is a disaster for our party,” the president told the crowd on Wednesday while calling Massie’s primary opponent up on stage.
“So let’s assume I didn’t go in. They’d say, ‘He should be going in!’ These are the worst people,” Trump said, lamenting the criticisms from Massie and some Democrats.
Trump continues to believe that most Americans will approve of eliminating an Iranian nuclear threat in the long term, one of the sources familiar with the talks said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back Wednesday evening on what she called “a fake narrative that there has been ‘mixed messaging’ about the objectives of Operation Epic Fury.”
“From the beginning, President Trump and his entire team have consistently laid out clear objectives to the American people about what the U.S. Military seeks to accomplish through these ongoing successful major combat operations,” she wrote on X.
The president’s belief in the long-term popularity of the war may be based on rhetoric coming from more hawkish Republican allies, who have supported his attacks in Iran.
“Trump has the opportunity to do something incredible,” another Trump ally who is in regular touch with the White House told CNN. “He can finally bring peace to the Middle East by cutting off the head of the snake,” referring to Iran’s funding of terrorism across the region. This messaging has been relayed to the president as well, this source said.
Since the war began, Trump’s advisers have sought to better define its objectives and narrow its scope to eliminating Iran’s missile, nuclear and naval capabilities. In doing so, they have made clear the conflict will end when Trump determines those goals have been reached — even if that means leaving in place the regime that built them in the first place.
And Republicans by and large support Trump’s military action, though many voices within Trump’s MAGA movement have either voiced deep skepticism or outright rejected the premise on which the conflict was launched.
But even those who support the war acknowledge its risks and have encouraged a limited engagement.
“I think the sooner we get to what the president was talking about yesterday — a decisive, clear end to this conflict — the better,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said Tuesday, referring to the president’s press conference the day before.
Trump’s countervailing impulses — to begin a war in the Middle East while also trying to broadcast an economic revival — have made for some confused moments.
Just minutes after he gave the final order to launch the bombing campaign nearly two weeks ago, he was touting his energy agenda in the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, with a fleet of massive tankers behind him. While he professed to still have a “hard decision” in front of him, planes were already being readied to carry out the first wave of strikes.
In that speech, Trump made no mention of the potential effect on the global energy market or the price of gas at home. In fact, senior members of the administration were claiming in interviews that they were unconcerned about the consequences bombing Iran would have on oil supplies.
That turned out to be misplaced.
The White House insisted this week that Trump and his team had seen the oil volatility coming all along. And while they’ve stood up some efforts to alleviate the strain, Trump has also sounded dismissive of concerns about passing through the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters earlier Wednesday that the US had taken out “just about all” of Iran’s mining ships. CNN previously reported that Iran has begun laying mines in the strait.
On his way back to Washington Wednesday night, Trump projected confidence in the mission — while leaving his timeline open.
“I think we’re in very good shape. The main thing is we have to win this thing, win it quickly, but win it,” Trump told reporters. “And there are many people — I’m just watching some of the news — most people say it’s already been won. It’s just a question of when, when do we stop?”
