If anyone knows that President Donald Trump, for all his bluster, can mean what he says, it is the Iranians. Trump is the president who took out the powerful Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, in January 2020. Trump is also the president who bombed Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025. And the president who attacked Iran in February 2026. So Iranians know that, for all his talk, Trump can also pull the trigger.
On the other hand, Iranians read Truth Social, the media site where the president posts statements about the war against Iran. Iranian officials follow the news and Trump’s frequent mini-interviews with journalists about the war. And the impression anyone would get from reading Trump’s thoughts is of a president eager to put the war behind him. Trump seems so eager, in fact, that he can appear desperate to get it over with.
The speed with which Trump recently embraced what he portrayed as a breakthrough in talks with Iran, only to have the whole thing fall apart in short order, suggested a president who badly wants to declare the war over — now. Trump was fully aware that the Iranians cannot be trusted, and that there was no set-in-stone deal in place, yet he heralded the seeming good news in a way that made him look overeager when things collapsed.
In addition, Trump has promised from the very moment the war began on Feb. 28 that it would be a very short conflict. “This war will be over very soon,” he has said on a number of occasions. “We’re way ahead of schedule . … It won’t be much longer,” he has said on others. At one point, Trump said of the war’s duration, “We projected four to five weeks … but we’re substantially ahead of schedule.”
The war, now in its eighth week, is still going on. No, that is nowhere near a forever war, as some would call it. But there is no doubt Trump is unhappy that it is continuing past the time that he predicted it would go.
Now, Trump is pushing back against the idea that the war, and its effects on the U.S. economy, could go on for a long time. When Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the price of gas has “likely peaked” but predicted it might remain high — above $4 a gallon — until next year, Trump quickly said that Wright was “totally wrong.”
Prices will go down “as soon as this ends,” Trump said.
Iran hears all this, of course. On Tuesday morning, Fox News’ Trey Yingst, reporting from Israel, quoted a “senior regional intelligence source” who suggested that Iran hopes to wait Trump out. “Iran sees this as a game of endurance,” Yingst reported, characterizing what the source said. “They believe that time is on their side and that ultimately the domestic pressure, when it comes to energy markets and the stock market, will force President Trump to make a deal that’s in their favor.”
Of course, what Iranian leaders — whoever they are — believe and what is fact could well be two different things. “That is not the reality,” Yingst continued. “The president and his counterparts in Israel have the ability to continue this operation for months if they need to, to pressure the Iranian regime to open the Strait of Hormuz and to give up their enriched uranium.”
That is, of course, true. The United States, fighting with a single ally, Israel, has done tremendous damage to Iran so far, and could inflict far more if the war goes on. The rational next step, it would seem to any American, would be for Iran to give up and come to an agreement with the United States. But who says this war has to end with what Americans would consider a rational decision? Iran gets a say in that.
Meanwhile, the president vents frustration almost daily. “I’m winning a war, BY A LOT,” he posted on Truth Social this week. “Things are going well, our military has been amazing, and if you read the Fake News, like the Failing New York Times, the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal, or the now almost defunct, fortunately, Washington Post, you would actually think we are losing the war.”
Trump is right that some of the coverage has been wildly out of balance and could give an uninformed reader the sense that the U.S. is losing. Still, his problem is far bigger than negative news coverage. The president who took out Soleimani, who hit the nuclear facilities and who launched a devastating attack on Iran is ready for things to end right now. Unfortunately, his frequently expressed sense of frustration appears to have inspired Iran to drag things out for as long as possible.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. Contact at byork@washingtonexaminer.com.
