President Donald Trump’s latest threats against Iran are alarming officials inside his own administration who fear he is digging himself into another military escalation, according to new CNN reporting.
The concerns emerged after the U.S. launched fresh strikes on Iran and Trump threatened it would be hit “much harder” - and even “wiped out as a country” — if it retaliated.
“There is almost no appetite to continue this very escalation,” CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“Keep in mind, they feel stretched thin on every level here,” Holmes added. "It’s not just the fact that the munitions stockpile is running low. It’s also the idea that personnel are stretched thin."
Holmes told Burnett that the administration had hoped to move away from military action and focus on economic pressure. But Trump’s latest threats have complicated that.
“These administration officials I’m talking to, they wish he wouldn’t level these kinds of threats at Iran, because then there has to be some kind of follow-through,” she said.
Holmes added that the frustrations extend beyond the White House and include concerns by House Speaker Mike Johnson and podcaster Joe Rogan.
“That is a whole Republican Party who doesn’t want to be in this position,” Holmes said, citing rising gas prices and other economic issues affecting voters ahead of the midterm elections.
Holmes noted that Trump has made similarly alarming threats in the past, but eventually pulled back.
“We've seen him walk up to the line and come back before,” she said. “But is he going to blink yet again?”