US President Donald Trump’s political and military difficulties have been mounting at an unrelenting pace since the war with Iran entered its sixth month. Despite extensive airstrikes and severe economic sanctions, Washington has been unable to force Tehran into submission. The crisis has now spread well beyond the battlefield, reaching deep into Washington’s domestic politics, military policy, and administrative decision-making.
A CNN analysis said pressure — both international and domestic — on the US administration is intensifying ahead of November’s midterm elections. Controversy flared recently after reports emerged that President Trump was secretly moved to a different aircraft during a visit to Turkey amid a potential Iranian missile threat.
The secret aircraft switch has raised questions about the use of American journalists and traveling companions as human shields. It has also exposed as baseless the Trump administration’s long-standing claims that Iran’s military capability had collapsed, while turning Washington into an object of ridicule in Iranian state media and internationally.
The war dragging on far longer than Trump anticipated has exposed major strategic strain within the US military. Early in the conflict, top officials including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine had warned Trump about ammunition shortages if the fighting continued for an extended period. Roughly 80 percent of interceptor missiles for THAAD, one of the US military’s primary air defense systems, have now been depleted. Separately, figures show Washington has lost roughly a quarter of the MQ-9 Reaper drone fleet used for strategic surveillance and precision strikes in the war against Iran.
On the domestic political front, Republican allies are now pressing hard for an end to the war. House Speaker Mike Johnson said: “We need to bring this to a close quickly.” Trump-aligned figures, from Fox News host Laura Ingraham to other influential commentators, have warned that an open-ended war always carries severe political risk.
An indefinite naval blockade strategy
Rather than pursuing direct airstrikes or risking a ground operation, the Trump administration has adopted a new long-term strategy against Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the US Navy has the capacity to maintain a naval blockade against Iran “indefinitely” by rotating ships through the Middle East. The strategy’s central aim is to completely halt the movement of goods through Iran’s commercial ports and cut off Tehran’s primary source of foreign currency earnings.
Despite facing this severe US pressure, Tehran has refused any form of compromise. Iran’s parliamentary committee has approved a plan to ban US, Israeli, and hostile-nation vessels from the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has said it will not allow the waterway to return to normal until US economic sanctions are lifted and seized Iranian assets are returned. Iranian policymakers have signaled they are prepared to continue this economic and military resistance until the end of Trump’s current term.
Attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz continue. Last Thursday night, two oil tankers belonging to the UAE’s state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company were struck by drones and missiles. The UAE government has directly blamed Iran for the attack. According to a report from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), more than 50 vessels have been attacked in the strait to date.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report