\u201cHow do we feel about a new supreme leader who is more extreme and vicious and dedicated to the development of a nuclear weapon than the last one? Do we do a deal with him? How do we get him to open the Strait of Hormuz? Do we bomb more?\u201d the Connecticut Democrat said. \u201cAnd if we sail away and declare victory, are we back there nine months from now to re-sink a rebuilt navy and re-bomb rebuilt missile launchers? Is this going to be [an] every nine-month thing or is it going to be annual?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump himself has been focused on Iran\u2019s oil stores and infrastructure, as well as Gulf allies that initially were skeptical of the U.S.-Israeli military strikes but now view a wounded Islamic Republic government as too dangerous and unpredictable not to destroy.<\/p>\n
Such worries were a reason Aaron David Miller, a former senior State Department adviser to Republican and Democratic administrations, said last week that what began as a war of choice for Trump has become one of \u201cnecessity.\u201d<\/p>\n
That became the case \u201conce it got out of the \u2018Israeli-American-Iranian triangle\u2019 and elevated to a global crisis. Now you have helium, LNG, fertilizer prices way up,\u201d Miller said in a Thursday telephone interview, using shorthand for liquefied natural gas. \u201cOnce you gave Iran the capacity, which they\u2019ve always had, to determine who gets in and who gets out of the Strait, you now have a global crisis \u2014 and no way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Trump has lurched from one justification for the ever-expanding mission to the next, he tried \u2014 again \u2014 this week to describe the current situation in the Strait as other countries\u2019 collective problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of those countries that can\u2019t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,\u201d Trump wrote on his social media platform<\/a> Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won\u2019t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren\u2019t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated,\u201d he added. \u201cThe hard part is done. Go get your own oil!\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, his Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, a short time later said during a Pentagon briefing<\/a> that returning Hormuz to its pre-war ship-passage rate had indeed become a focus of the administration\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would much prefer to get a deal. If Iran was willing to relinquish material they have and ambitions they have, open the Strait, great,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Never be the same\u2019<\/p>\n Like other presidents before him, Trump appeared on Feb. 28 to believe he could avoid mission creep. But Miller said the president\u2019s pre-war thinking has \u201cproven, so far, to be highly flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo. 1, it was flawed to believe that American and Israeli military dominance would somehow force concessions or capitulation. No. 2, it was flawed to think that the regime would be hollowed out by decapitation strikes, and its command and control would be eliminated \u2026 by the death of Khamenei,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n Trump mused publicly about identifying and somehow installing as Iran\u2019s next long-term leader someone in the mold of Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, who took over after Trump sent U.S. military and law enforcement personnel to arrest former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. But some Democratic lawmakers and analysts, including Miller, have said that\u2019s a doubtful scenario, which would only further complicate and elongate the U.S. mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBecause whatever happens to Iran, Iran will never be the same country again. If Trump is looking for an Iranian Delcy Rodriguez, what he got in new supreme leader is most likely an Iranian Kim Jong Un \u2014 and not just one,\u201d Miller said, referring to Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to his father as Iran\u2019s supreme leader. \u201cNow there\u2019s a couple of those sitting atop the government, and that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump also has been pressed in recent days about whether he might send in American ground forces to seize and remove Iran\u2019s 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267977888.jpg\")
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., on March 23. (Roberto Schmidt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n