{"id":12647,"date":"2026-07-21T14:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12647"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:54:07","slug":"this-is-what-a-quagmire-looks-like-trump-enters-bleak-new-phase-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12647","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is what a quagmire looks like\u2019: Trump enters bleak new phase with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/90\/0a\/1b55ddd4498ba46266ec28364e87\/trump-381-8.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The war in Iran has entered a bleak new phase.<\/p>\n<p>After weeks of fragile peace and stalled negotiations, the weekend deaths of multiple U.S. service members \u2014 coupled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/20\/us\/politics\/troops-injured-jordan-iran-war.html\" target=\"_blank\"><u>with new reporting showing<\/u><\/a> there may be more previously undisclosed injuries \u2014 have left White House allies afraid the president is rapidly running out of ways to extricate the U.S. from an unpopular, expensive conflict ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what a quagmire looks like,\u201d said one person close to the White House, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump on Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116953296612438865\" target=\"_blank\">promised that Iran would pay<\/a> \u201cmany times over\u201d for each service member&#8217;s death, threatening to escalate a conflict that many had hoped was on the verge of resolving. U.S. Central Command <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CENTCOM\/status\/2079299384685064351?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\"><u>announced Monday evening a new round of strikes<\/u><\/a> focused on degrading Iranian military capabilities to attack commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople, generally, are concerned,\u201d said James Jeffrey, a former ambassador who served in the Middle East in three presidential administrations, including the first Trump administration. \u201cI mean, Americans are dying. It&#8217;s very serious. This is a real war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans close to the White House are also distressed about the war\u2019s economic impact on everyday Americans in an election that is expected to hinge on cost-of-living issues. The average price for a gallon of gas <a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>surpassed $4 for the first time<\/u><\/a> since mid June, up 13 cents in the last week.<\/p>\n<p>And Iran\u2019s demonstrated ability to survive punishing U.S. bombardments while inflicting casualties on American troops and allies and choking off the Strait of Hormuz underscores the challenges Trump faces in trying to win a war against an adversary that is merely trying to survive it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t think anybody likes the in-between position of having an Iran where these terrorists are still in charge and could affect our domestic politics going into November. For them, winning the war is surviving,\u201d said Trump pollster John McLaughlin. \u201cTheir whole existence is based on an ongoing war with us that we&#8217;d rather not have. But they&#8217;re leaving us with an option that we don&#8217;t want to have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, some are hopeful that the president\u2019s latest threats are a means to get Iran back to the negotiating table. Mediators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/mediators-propose-10-day-ceasefire-revive-iran-us-interim-deal-senior-iranian-2026-07-20\/\" target=\"_blank\">passed to Iran a proposal<\/a> to deescalate the war with the U.S. that would establish a 10-day ceasefire in an effort to revive the agreement reached by the two countries last month, Reuters reported on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Those in that camp balk at the idea that Trump would put boots on the ground to, say, seize Kharg Island, as the president has in the past suggested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyone talking about boots on the ground, I think, is disconnected from the administration and certainly disconnected from the president,\u201d said Alex Gray, who served as National Security Council chief of staff during Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cThey&#8217;re pushing an agenda that has certainly no buy-in from the president and his team, and certainly doesn&#8217;t reflect the Republican Party today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. officials argue the president is focused on punishing Iran for violating the memorandum of understanding the two countries reached last month, attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and, now, the deaths of U.S. service members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the U.S. military degrades the terrorist Iranian regime\u2019s ability to attack commercial vessels and disrupt the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices will plummet back to pre-conflict levels,\u201d said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the military deaths and promises of revenge are casting a grim shadow over the summer campaign season, during which the president and his party were hoping to refocus on their popular tax cuts, Trump accounts for newborns and lower drug prices.<\/p>\n<p>The juxtaposition is stark. Ahead of a scheduled campaign-style speech in Georgia on Wednesday set to tout the administration\u2019s economic agenda, the president had been expected to travel to Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday to attend the dignified transfer of the soldiers killed this weekend in the Middle East. The dignified transfer was postponed Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe war has become a persistent dark cloud that is souring the national mood which typically depresses the base of the party in power and motivates supporters of the opposition,\u201d said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.).<\/p>\n<p>And additional escalation is likely to continue driving up the price of oil, which reached nearly $90 a barrel on Monday, according to the international Brent crude index, a number that further imperils GOP prospects in an election that is just over three months away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy heuristic always is if the incumbent party has oil above $90 a barrel, they&#8217;re going to lose. And if they have it below $70 a barrel, they&#8217;re going to win. I think this is already the danger zone,\u201d said Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday there could be briefings this week with administration officials on the latest developments in the war with Iran, but no meetings have been scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>Administration allies believe there are a number of military options open to the president that fall short of boots on the ground, including escalating the U.S\u2019s naval blockade and attacks on Iranian infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/iran-war-trump-us-strait-of-hormuz-attacks\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>last month conceded<\/u><\/a> he was unsure if Americans had the \u201cappetite\u201d for a longer, broader war, some of the president\u2019s supporters say Tehran is underestimating his tolerance for political risk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were hoping, because they\u2019ve had a lot of experience with this, that they\u2019ll simply outlast us,\u201d Jeffrey said. But \u201cTrump really has no choice. He put a compromise on the table. He\u2019s not going to surrender, even if he loses the elections\u201d in November.<\/p>\n<p>And the deaths of American servicemembers are likely to add pressure for Trump to respond forcefully, said a second person close to the White House granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201c<\/b>His patience has always been limited, but I think we&#8217;re now seeing the consequences of that,\u201d the person said. \u201cA good indicator of where he intends to go is his massive defense budget request to Congress. He wants to ensure the United States has more than enough capability to sustain any future operations if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the $1.5 trillion defense budget, the White House also requested $67 billion to cover the costs of the war.<\/p>\n<p>That defense budget, however, is stalled in the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has argued that the legislation, which reliably becomes law each year, was tantamount to \u201ca permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran\u201d and last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/14\/senate-dems-block-defense-bill-protest-iran-war-00997134\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Senate Democrats<\/u><\/a> blocked it from advancing to the floor.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The war in Iran has entered a bleak new phase. After weeks of fragile peace and stalled negotiations, the weekend deaths of multiple U.S. service members \u2014 coupled with new reporting showing there may be more previously undisclosed injuries \u2014 have left White House allies afraid the president is rapidly running out of ways to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/90\/0a\/1b55ddd4498ba46266ec28364e87\/trump-381-8.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}