U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during an event to sign an executive order regarding vaccine flexibility, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 10, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Analysts warned on Monday that President Donald Trump is running out of options to end the war against Iran, the New York Times reported.
Trump launched the war at the behest of Israel and Saudi Arabia more than five months ago, claiming that it would prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon — something that was already guaranteed by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration that Trump tore up — and would present an opportunity for the people of Iran to establish a democratic government. Since then, the war has caused the global price of gas to skyrocket, and further complicated the economic problems that Trump promised voters he would solve as the midterm elections draw near.
Analysts told the New York Times that it's clear Trump is looking for a way out of the conflict. But he's meeting strong resistance from reality.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, told the outlet that “reality is slapping [Trump] in the face.”
Other analysts noted that the pressures Trump faces to end the war are greater than the ones Iran faces.
“I don’t think the president has very good options,” Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told the Times. “The pressure points for the Iranians are, while real, more endurable and bearable than those that are impacting the U.S. economy and the strategic calculus of the administration.”