Trump’s Iran War Six Months On: Strait of Hormuz Disrupted, Oil Prices Surge

Six months after the start of the Iran war, Reuters said the conflict described by President Donald Trump as a “short trip” has become a crisis that threatens to undermine his presidency, with Iran not yielding and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz remaining highly disrupted.

“the war described by President Donald Trump as a “short trip” has become a crisis”

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Reuters reported that Trump’s approval rating fell from 40% to 33% since the conflict began, attributing the drop to rising gasoline prices that undercut his 2024 campaign promise to lower costs for Americans.

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The agency also said the American and Israeli attacks sparked immediate panic and a sharp rise in oil prices, raising concerns about a global recession, while noting that Iran was targeted but not defeated.

Reuters further reported that the readiness of the U.S. military declined, saying a May report from the Congressional Research Service stated that 42 U.S. military aircraft were lost in the conflict.

In Rochester, N.Y., WHAM reported that Tommy Mach, a Fairport resident and retired Marine, said he was in Abu Dhabi on a business trip when “things suddenly became serious,” and he later described the experience as a “game of musical airports.”

WHAM reported that Tommy Mach recounted the days leading up to the moment he was able to secure his flight back home, and he said it frustrates him that the war is still ongoing and it shouldn’t have begun in the first place.

Mach told WHAM, “I hope that it ends quickly,” and added, “I hope that we can bring our troops back,” while saying troops “don’t necessarily need to be there.”

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WHAM also quoted local business owner Pouya Seifzadeh, who is Iranian, Canadian, and American, saying, “This is not a regime that you can trust,” and he described it as pursuing nuclear weapons from the 1990s.

In the same WHAM report, Seifzadeh said, “Iran will never stop pursuing this regime,” and he said he keeps in touch with his family who live in the country and recently moved to safety.

Reuters, meanwhile, framed the political stakes as Trump paying a political price because the war did not enjoy broad initial support and opposition grew, citing a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing the approval drop from 40% to 33%.

Reuters said the conflict’s trajectory has left no clear path to end it, and it warned that the readiness of the U.S. military declined as the American military lost drones and aircraft due to Iranian strikes and other incidents.

“The readiness of the U.S. military declined”

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The Reuters report cited a May report from the Congressional Research Service stating that 42 U.S. military aircraft were lost in the conflict, underscoring the operational cost it described.

WHAM’s account of people evacuated from the Middle East during the Iran and U.S. conflict highlighted the personal dimension of that operational risk, with Mach describing explosions above an airport while he waited for an airplane.

Mach told WHAM that he was “in Abu Dhabi on a business trip” when the situation escalated, and he said he guessed “nobody really kind of took it too seriously until it was kind of too late.”

Reuters also said Iran was targeted but not defeated, and that Tehran can still launch attacks and keep the Hormuz Strait under closure, leaving the conflict’s next phase uncertain for both regional shipping and U.S. military planning.