'He wants to get out': Insiders spill about Trump's panicked plan to leave Iran
White House insiders divulged what President Donald Trump was considering next after the U.S. and Israel started launching military strikes in Iran, a Wall Street Journal reporter said Wednesday.
Josh Dawsey, WSJ political investigations reporter, told a CNN panel that although Trump hasn't mentioned an exact exit strategy, his administration was panicking amid rising oil prices, looming midterms, and Americans' dissatisfaction over the escalating conflict to figure out what the off-ramp would be to leave the war in the Middle East.
"He doesn't have an appetite for a long term war, at least according to my sources that I've talked to, he's looking for ways to sort of message 'We've done this, we've done that. Now it's time to leave,'" Dawsey said. "The question is, have they said how much of that can he control? Right. If he says we're out of here, and then let's say the Iranians keep attacking with the missiles or drones or they have left, what does the president do? The president has a lot of power. He's obviously, you know, in a lot of ways, the most powerful figure in the world but he can't control everything, right. And some of these things are beyond his control. But he wants to get out at some point."
Trump has appeared to be influenced by a variety of factors, which could ultimately determine how the U.S. strategizes its moves with Iran.
"He watches the markets closely, you see when he makes comments, when he wants the markets to sort of go back up, he watches the markets closely, watches oil prices closely," Dawsey said. "He watches the MAGA supporters closely. I mean, Joe Rogan, I can quite tell you the president notices that he's watching voices, he's watching polling in his party. He's watching the midterms. And I don't think he has an appetite for a long term sustained conflict with Iran, at least according to what I'm told by folks inside the White House."
Trump has plenty on his mind — and it's not just the war.
"He launches a war, and then he goes to a MAGA fundraiser where he polls everyone in the room. 'Do you think it should be JD Vance or Marco Rubio?' That's what he does the first weekend," Dawsey said. "He's done college football events. He goes in the White House and he's talking about the ballroom. I mean, I'm not saying he's not focused on the war. I'm just saying he has so many other things that he's talking to people about."
Dawsey argued that the Trump administration doesn't appear to be making an aggressive case for the public as to why Americans should support the war. Instead, the president has focused on multiple things at once.
"He's spent two hours on Friday afternoon of the college sports, and NIL roundtable, he had all these celebrities, he's talking to them," Dawsey added. "I'm not saying president couldn't weigh in on that. A lot of people care about college sports but I mean, it's sort of discordant from what's going on in the world."
