4 weeks in, Trump’s conflicting signals on Iran war frustrate GOP lawmakers and political allies - CNN

Trump over the last several days has simultaneously expressed a desire for peace and a willingness to plunge the US into a new and more dangerous phase of the war.

He has insisted that Iran is eager to negotiate a truce while also ordering thousands more troops to the region over the coming days and weeks.

And as Trump nears his self-imposed deadline for a war he insists is ahead of schedule and effectively won, he has repeatedly declined to specify what would constitute a victory — leaving all but his closest advisers largely in the dark.

“I just read a story today that I’m desperate to make a deal. I’m not,” Trump said Thursday, just days after hailing progress toward negotiating a “complete and total” resolution of the war. “I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care.”

The minute-by-minute vacillations and conflicting signals coming out of the White House have unnerved lawmakers, political allies and even some Trump aides and advisers, who acknowledge they have little idea what will happen next and harbor increasing doubts about the administration’s management of a conflict laden with political and economic peril.

Complications with ending the war quickly

Trump in recent days has sought to force Iran into a quick deal, raising the specter of strikes on critical infrastructure and a potential ground invasion to convince the regime to give in. But should those threats fail, his allies worry it could set the stage for an even more unpredictable and potentially destabilizing endgame.

Despite Trump’s desire to conclude the war in a matter of days, officials have struggled in recent classified briefings to detail how they plan to achieve key objectives if Iran doesn’t cooperate — such as reopening the Strait of Hormuz or permanently ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to lawmakers in the room.

The White House has come under competing pressures, as Arab allies urge Trump not to leave behind an even more dangerous Iranian regime, while some in the GOP press him to declare victory and get out before voters sour further on his presidency.

Across global financial markets, the warning signs are intensifying, too. Following a brief retreat earlier this week spurred by optimism that a diplomatic solution was in reach, oil prices have continued to surge to fresh highs, ignoring Trump’s assurances that the pain from his “little stopover” in Iran is close to finished.

“Everyone is worried about a quagmire in the Middle East,” said one close Trump ally, who was granted anonymity to describe the darkening mood among many in the president’s orbit. “That’s been the history of the Middle East as long as I’ve been alive, so I’m not sure why they didn’t see the potential for what this could become.”

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump’s “first instinct is always diplomacy,” which was why he initially sought to negotiate with the Iranian regime before launching his military campaign.

“Now that the regime’s ballistic missile capacity and navy is getting annihilated by the United States, they are begging to make a deal,” she said. “The President is willing to listen, but if they fail to accept the reality of the current moment, they will be hit harder than ever before.”

Still, even among Trump’s top advisers, their preparations for the next stage of the war reflect uncertainty over which path the president will choose.

Officials have sought to provide Trump maximum optionality, offering him a wide array of choices for conducting his campaign. They have taken care not to make any firm commitments that he might later contradict, even if it’s meant confusing allies or heightening market anxieties.

Trump officials over the last week have both downplayed the prospect of putting troops on the ground and insisted that Trump is willing use all options at his disposal to crush the regime. They have characterized his war aims as nearly complete, while refusing to specify how much longer fully achieving them will take.

“It’ll be over when the president decides it’ll be over,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at an energy industry conference earlier this week, even as he claimed that the spike in oil and gas prices triggered by the war amounted to only a “temporary increase.”