Trump's Seven-Month Iran War Strains US Midterm Politics

President Trump says the ongoing seven-month US and Israeli military campaign against Iran will end "immediately after" November's midterms, as Tehran withstands sustained strikes and a naval blockade rather than capitulating. Rising petrol prices and inflation tied to the war are eroding Trump's approval ratings and fuelling Democratic pressure to end the conflict, while Iran calculates that simply surviving and disrupting global trade routes like the Strait of Hormuz counts as victory. The unresolved US-Israel-Iran conflict illustrates how a regional war can persist and destabilise Western politics and economies without producing a decisive outcome for any side.