The Real Reason Trump Wants Economic Sanctions in Iran

F or months, President Trump has been unable to bring the conflict with Iran to a close.

A massive bombing campaign lost its effectiveness, and U.S. munitions supplies ran low.

Diplomacy lagged, as leaders in Tehran remained content to deliberately prolong the process and harden their control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Even the current pseudo-cease-fire—as deeply uneasy as it is—has done little to meaningfully lower the cost of energy around the globe.

With few options remaining, the Trump administration has settled into a potentially lengthy campaign of economic pressure , pledging to squeeze Iran until its leaders have no choice but to seriously return to negotiations.

But that tack could prove toothless if the U.S. doesn’t also punish the nations that still do business with Iran and keep its economy afloat—and Trump has historically shown little willingness to stand up to the likes of China and Russia, or even North Korea, which has a strategic alliance with Tehran.

If nothing else, the new approach allows the White House to say it’s trying something and then—importantly—to stop talking about the war.

Part of the plan, Trump advisers and allies tell us, is to try to push Iran to the background, while hoping that gas prices come down even a little and that Republicans can shift the nation’s focus to more politically palatable topics ahead of the midterms.

That won’t change the reality on the ground in the Middle East: Alliances have been strained , the U.S. military has been overtaxed, and Iran wields far more power in the region than it did at the beginning of the war, about six months ago.

But it could allow Trump, a master of distraction, to turn to other priorities—a trade war with Canada! Claims of election fraud! His skill at flagpoles !—to try to save at least one chamber of Congress for his party this fall.

“We’re just trying to hang on until the midterms,” one Trump adviser told us.

A t this moment , strategists in both parties believe that the Democrats are favored to capture the House.

And despite a GOP-friendly Senate map, the upper chamber is viewed as a toss-up.

Trends were already working against Republicans: Traditionally, the party out of power tends to do well in the midterms, and over the past decade, Trump supporters have seemed less inclined to vote when his name isn’t on the ballot.