{"id":7291,"date":"2026-07-27T04:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7291"},"modified":"2026-07-27T04:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:10:52","slug":"at-every-fork-in-the-road-on-iran-trumps-choices-get-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7291","title":{"rendered":"At every fork in the road on Iran, Trump\u2019s choices get worse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n President Donald Trump has arrived at yet another fork in the road on Iran. But each time he reaches such a point, his options only become more narrow and the costs of any course of action grow.\n <\/p>

Read more Iran war casualty count eclipses 600 as Pentagon quietly changes accounting<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Trump administration explained Sunday that a pause in air strikes \u2014 now in its third night, after 13 straight nights of attacks \u2014 was meant to create space for diplomacy. But it also warned it was \u201clocked and loaded\u201d for another possible escalation.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are some signs of diplomatic activity. Iran said it hosted talks with Oman at deputy foreign minister level in recent days. But there\u2019s so far no sign the Islamic Republic will shift on its core demand, which caused the latest flare-up with the US: its insistence on controlling shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump finds himself back in a familiar spot. He\u2019s tried to coerce Iranian concessions with intensified attacks. But this plan is not working any better now that it did after the initial round of fighting. He could increase the pressure by deploying ground troops, a move that might take advantage of the US military edge. But this would risk significant US casualties in an already deeply unpopular war.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nearly five months into a war he\u2019d said would take a few weeks, Trump keeps trying to create maneuvering space against Tehran. But all the strategy seems to do is leave him with less room and worse choices.\n <\/p>\n

\n And the political heat is rising. A jump in oil prices last week creates the likelihood of higher gasoline costs and more angst for the majority of Americans who oppose the war \u2014 although Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell more than 5% Sunday. An alternative oil shipping route through the Red Sea is now being threatened by Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Global crude inventories are approaching critically low levels, stoking fears of a worsening energy crisis. All of this is unfolding ahead of the fast approaching midterm elections in November in which Trump\u2019s Republicans already face a tough ride.\n<\/p>\n

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\"People<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nPeople sit in a fishing boat sailing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off of Yemen’s southern Taiz province on July 25.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Khaled Ziad\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u2018We need something different\u2019<\/strong>\n<\/h2>\n

\n As has been the case for weeks, Trump\u2019s options appear unpalatable. This may explain his gyration last week between threats of huge force and claims that Iran is begging to talk. Given the failure to shift the geopolitics of the war, such rhetoric seems aimed more toward domestic audiences than Tehran.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump could still choose to act on his blistering rhetoric last week, following a broadening geographic scope of targets in Iran during the latest bout of attacks. He could try to further strangle the Iranian economy by striking transport infrastructure and power plants. But such an approach would heap even more pain on Iranian civilians, whom Trump seemed keen to help at the start of the war. And even some in his inner circle doing think it would not move Tehran\u2019s repressive rulers.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Zachary Cohen and Jim Sciutto reported that Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine voiced concern about escalating the war in a White House meeting Friday. Caine was worried about the impact on munitions stockpiles, a source familiar with the matter and a US official said. Last week, CNN\u2019s Katie Bo Lillis reported that both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency recently assessed that the kind of bombing the US most recently carried out is unlikely to shift the Iranian negotiating position, according to two US officials familiar with the assessments.\n <\/p>\n

\n One other plan would be to extend the US economic blockade on Iran\u2019s ships and ports to try to choke off funding for the Iranian government and revenues needed to sustain the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military machine. The downside is that it would take weeks or months and still might not reshape Tehran\u2019s thinking. It\u2019s not clear that Trump has the personal patience or the domestic political room to pick such a path. And Iran would likely respond by renewing attacks on commercial tankers in the strait \u2014 thereby heightening the shock waves of the war on the global economy and the political pressure in the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n A third option might see the US to try to renew the collapsed memorandum of understanding that forged a short-lived ceasefire. But Tehran is unlikely to agree unless it secures what it believed the MOU provided to begin with \u2014 the right to regulate and monetize strait traffic. This would represent a defeat for the US, since the critical waterway was open before the war. Trump would face domestic political criticism from foreign policy hawks, meanwhile, if he were seen to give Tehran even more favorable terms than those in the initial MOU, which brought the promise of sanctions relief and a regional reconstruction fund.\n <\/p>

Read more Graham called yearslong push for war with Iran \u2018the best thing I\u2019ve ever done\u2019 in new footage<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Everyone seems to be casting around for an elusive new approach.\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, for instance, said on \u201cState of the Union\u201d Sunday that Trump should initiate a \u201cnational dialogue, where the president comes to the American people, comes to Congress, Congress helps make a tough decision. Is there another way forward?\u201d He told CNN\u2019s Dana Bash that he hoped for a solution that doesn\u2019t give Iran the ability to control the strait and does not involving the US spending \u201ctens of billions of dollars on something which so far has not proven results.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe need something different,\u201d Cassidy said.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it\u2019s a mark of Trump\u2019s conundrum that after five months of war, no one has come up with a workable suggestion for what something different might look like.\n <\/p>\n

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\"Military<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nMilitary helicopters and personnel operate in a location given as the Arabian Sea in this screengrab obtained from a video released by US Central Command (CENTCOM) on July 25.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
US Central Command\/Reuters<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nCan Trump fashion a route out of a no-win situation?<\/strong>\n<\/h2>\n

\n The White House handed US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz the task of explaining the administration\u2019s shifting strategy and search for a way out of the war on Sunday talk shows.\n <\/p>\n

\n Waltz highlighted a recent buildup of military force in the Middle East that fueled expectations Trump might try to intensify the fight. \u201cThe regime should believe the president when he says, \u2018(We\u2019re) locked and loaded,\u2019 and where all options are on the table,\u201d he told CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n On NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Waltz argued that \u201cIran is diplomatically isolated, economically isolated and militarily devastated.\u201d He added: \u201cThey\u2019ve never been so weak, and we\u2019re negotiating from a position of strength.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In military terms, this may be true. But the asymmetric nature of the conflict means that as long as Iran can threaten ships with drones and missiles in the strait, it has the capacity to increase the global costs of the war. And the survival of its repressive regime despite the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei creates a perception of strength against the US global superpower.\n <\/p>\n

\n The war in Iran meanwhile continues to be a political anvil for the Trump administration. A new CBS News\/YouGov poll reflects the president\u2019s chaotic messaging on the conflict, with only 31% of Americans saying they had a clear understanding of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. Only 40% said the US had the advantage in the conflict. And 76% said the war with Iran had been harder than the Trump administration expected.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Waltz insisted that the president\u2019s core goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon would be recognized by history. \u201cSometimes, that\u2019s going to be harder than \u2014 you know, harder than initially planned for,\u201d he told NBC.\n <\/p>\n

\n For months, Trump has sought to force Iranian capitulation without embroiling the United States in the kind of Middle East ground wars that he decried on the campaign trail. But experience is showing that the war may not be winnable within the self-imposed limits on US action. Another step up the ladder of escalation may simply deliver Trump back to the same unenviable dilemma. But there\u2019s no obvious path to a peace deal that fulfills US goals.\n <\/p>

Read more Michigan, Missouri primaries will again lay bare the Democratic divide over Israel<\/a><\/p>\n

\n It seems like the definition of a no-win situation.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration explained Sunday that a pause in air strikes was meant to create space for diplomacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nAt every fork in the road on Iran, Trump\u2019s choices get worse - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7291\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At every fork in the road on Iran, Trump\u2019s choices get worse - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Trump administration explained Sunday that a pause in air strikes was meant to create space for diplomacy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=7291\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-27T04:10:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dcce6ec615038f19134644eefddc4f47.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"At every fork in the road on Iran, Trump\u2019s choices get worse\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-27T04:10:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291\"},\"wordCount\":1443,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/8a332b22079c5daba75fc332aaa1d3bf.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=7291\",\"name\":\"At every fork in the road on Iran, Trump\u2019s choices get worse - 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