Here Are the Difficult Options Trump Is Weighing to Resolve the War in Iran

The public split last week between Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over whether the conflict with Iran is a worthwhile expenditure of American resources and power is now permeating an urgent question: How does the Trump administration get out? The debate over the war inside the administration has hardly been a state secret since it started more than eight months ago. Mr. Vance privately expressed skepticism about a full-scale military operation; Mr. Hegseth, fresh from the capture of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, was among the most gung-ho.

On Wednesday, after the Republicans’ broad defeat in the midterm elections, Mr. Vance was unsparing : “The reason we lost is the war.” He added: “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.” Mr. Hegseth responded with a defiant, self-promoting video that seemed to be an argument for full speed ahead. With the U.S. military again massing a major force near Iran, Mr. Hegseth argued to “fight, fight, fight.”

Now the president must decide where he will come down as he weighs whether to launch a renewed attack in coming days. Just as Mr. Trump cited a jumble of objectives as the war began — collapsing the Iranian government, dismantling the remnants of its nuclear program, restricting the country’s missile arsenal and ending Iranian help to proxies in the region — he is struggling to articulate how much more the United States should expend in the deeply unpopular conflict.

Image Vice President JD Vance privately expressed skepticism about a full-scale military operation before the launch of the war in February. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times On Wednesday, the president said it was “largely true” that Republicans lost badly in the midterms because the conflict had driven up gas prices, as Mr. Vance said. But he added that he would make the same decision to go to war again. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

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