As the U.S. and Iran meet over the negotiating table in Pakistan this weekend, the outcome of Operation Epic Fury remains deeply uncertain. But one thing is clear: The war with Iran has offered a remarkably revealing snapshot of how the Trump administration really operates — inside the West Wing, across Washington and around the world. The picture that emerges is not a pretty one for President Donald Trump. The conflict has proved messier and more complex than Trump expected. The resulting energy shocks have damaged the domestic economy and alienated allies. The already-limited political support for the war at home has rapidly eroded, even among some of Trump’s erstwhile supporters. And the prospects for reaching a negotiated resolution that could satisfy both parties’ demands are far from certain. To help decipher this moment, we convened a roundtable of POLITICO reporters who have been closely covering the conflict: White House reporter Diana Nerozzi, senior Congress reporter Meredith Lee Hill, defense reporter Jack Detsch, national security reporter Daniella Cheslow, White House energy reporter Scott Waldman and senior politics reporter Liz Crampton. Here’s what our reporters have learned about Trump just over a month into the conflict — and what it suggests about where the conflict and the MAGA movement might go from here. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Let's start with some top-line takeaways from everyone: Briefly, what’s the most important thing that we’ve learned about President Donald Trump and/or MAGA from the war with Iran? Daniella Cheslow: TACO Tuesday lives on! We learned that while he has the stomach for short, targeted operations in Venezuela and last year, in Iran, he does not have the appetite for long-term intervention in Iran. That's certainly not something MAGA would be interested in — although I was surprised that some of his supporters were OK with him striking Iran alongside Israel in the first days and weeks of this operation. Diana Nerozzi: We've learned just how deep the fissures are in the MAGA movement on foreign conflicts. Some, like former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, quit the administration, while other previous loyalists like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens got into a fiery exchange with Trump, worse than we've ever seen before. This shows that a faction of the GOP is realigning itself, or at least is wavering, and that may have consequences for the future of the party. Jack… [TheTopNews] Read More.
3 weeks ago
