A wife of one of the 18 military personnel killed in the Iran war has described her husband's dismay at how the conflict was unfolding.

Speaking with the New York Times, Jamiah Swinton described the changes her husband seemed to be undergoing since he was deployed over a year ago.

The final conversations between Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton and his wife showed the soldier was deteriorating under the weight of relentless conflict. In his last calls home to North Carolina, the physical and psychological toll was unmistakable, his wife said.

"I could always tell, when the tone would change, that something was going on," Jamiah Swinton told the Times, recounting how she learned to read the subtle shifts in her husband's demeanor.

The danger was constant and inescapable, she said. Stationed at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, Swinton faced relentless Iranian drone attacks. "There was no peace," his wife said.

His final video call with his family was heartbreaking in its brevity and tenderness, according to the report. He asked to see their 4-year-old daughter, who was at preschool. It had been a full year since he'd held her in person.

Last week, Swinton was among four service members killed during escalating combat operations between U.S. and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon said he died Saturday during the disposal of an Iranian drone at Erbil—a controlled detonation now under investigation, according to the Times.

Jamiah and Michael had met during a 2020 deployment to Bahrain, both serving in the military.

"When I did see him on videos, he just looked so tired," Jamiah said. "And he would tell me he wanted to come home so bad."

While Trump claimed the fallen soldiers supported the war, Jamiah chose to focus on remembering her husband rather than engage in political debate about the conflict that claimed his life.

"Nobody can tell you how a military career will go," she reflected. "There's so much uncertainty, and you have to be strong enough to go along with it and hope that it will turn out OK."

Republican operatives in Washington and South Carolina are voicing doubts behind closed doors that President Donald Trump's endorsement will be enough to carry Darline Graham Nordone across the finish line in November's Senate race.

Nordone — sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and currently serving as his temporary replacement — enters South Carolina's Aug. 11 primary with Trump's backing and a wave of sympathy following her brother's death, but a half-dozen GOP operatives told Axios that combination may not be enough, pointing to three underlying vulnerabilities.

Among them was former South Carolina GOP chair Chad Connelly, who told Axios, "She has a lot of work to do to win over the constituents that she hasn't had the time [to meet] through a grassroots effort."

First, they note the Nordone name is a double-edged sword. Lindsey Graham never fully won over the state's conservative base, wary of his bipartisan dealmaking and past friction with Trump — a skepticism reflected in June's special primary, when he failed to crack 60 percent of the vote against underfunded rivals, and operatives expect his sister to inherit that same ceiling.

Second, despite the family name, Nordone remains largely unknown to voters, still working to build the grassroots relationships that better-known rivals like Rep. Ralph Norman and Rep. Russell Fry have spent years cultivating. Early polling has shown her trailing.

Third, operatives point to South Carolina's deep-rooted resistance to political succession. Voters have twice rejected appointed senators seeking full terms, in 1954 and 1966, and just last month, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette lost her gubernatorial primary despite backing from both Trump and Gov. Henry McMaster — a fresh reminder that presidential endorsements don't guarantee victory in the state.

Notably, several Republicans emphasized that Trump's swift endorsement — issued before any other major GOP leader, including McMaster, weighed in — has only reinforced the perception that Nordone is inheriting the seat rather than earning it.

A Nordone spokesperson pushed back, telling Axios that she is building momentum through her conservative record and understands firsthand how demanding a campaign can be, having watched her brother run for years.

But privately, many in the party remain unconvinced that goodwill and a presidential nod will be enough.

Earlier this week, Nordone outraged Trump's MAGA base when news broke she donated $100 to a Republican lawmaker who helped block a near-total abortion ban in South Carolina.

Nordone's attempt to prove her pro-life bonafides were met with contempt.

"You’re good friends with Katrina Shealy, the former South Carolina state senator who is PRO-ABORTION and OPPOSED the Heartbeat bill," replied Kelly McCarty, a "Covid accountability" influencer. "AND you even donated to her campaign."

President Donald Trump's recent remarks could signal an upcoming move with "almost unimaginable humanitarian consequences," political scientist Robert Pape warned Friday.

Amid the ongoing and deeply unpopular U.S. war against Iran, Trump told Axios on Thursday that he was “close to making a decision” on launching a “massive attack,” one “bigger than ever before.” He also said Iran had “not suffered enough yet,” and noted that the U.S. military was ready to execute Trump’s plan at any moment.

Pape, a professor of political science and former educator at a U.S. military institution, flagged Trump’s remark regarding Iran having not “suffered enough” as particularly telling given the president’s recent threats to destroy civilian infrastructure.

“If mass punishment becomes the next escalation of the war, the obvious place to understand its consequences is Tehran,” Pape wrote in an analysis published Friday on his Substack.

“With roughly ten million residents, Tehran is Iran’s political capital, economic center, communications hub, and transportation nexus. If the objective is to impose visible national pain, nowhere else in Iran carries comparable political weight. But, what happens to an entire modern city when the electricity that sustains it suddenly disappears?”

Recalling his time instructing officers at the U.S. Air Force’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Pape noted how American air strategy over the past several decades has steered away from targeting energy-producing infrastructure. With Trump’s explicit threats to destroy power plants, however, Pape feared that the Trump administration was readying a crippling attack on Iran’s largest city.

“The humanitarian consequences are almost unimaginable. The strategic consequences are even more important,” Pape wrote.

“History strongly suggests that inflicting massive civilian suffering through electric power targeting rarely produces rapid political capitulation when governments believe their survival is at stake. Instead, punishment tends to deepen popular anger, strengthen elite resolve, and create overwhelming incentives for retaliation.”

Pape continued, “Turning off the lights is easy. Living with what comes next – for Iranians, Americans, Israelis, and the countries hosting U.S. forces across the region – is far harder.”