Trump veers from boredom to denial after 6 months of war on Iran

Trump veers from boredom to denial after 6 months of war on Iran.

Key points

• A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on August 14-17 discovered that his approval rating had fallen to 33 per cent, the lowest of his current term.
• During the 36-minute event, Trump applied the word "granite" 13 times and the word "Iran" just three.
• For Trump, Iran was meant to be a quick win like the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January.
• Garret Martin, a foreign policy expert at American University, remarked Trump "famously has a short attention span".
• No, I think the hat is empty, William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, informed AFP.

Trump veers from boredom to denial after 6 months of war on Iran. AFP Published August 25, 2026 Updated August 25, 2026 12: 27pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

At an impromptu press conference last week, US President Donald Trump waxed lyrical regarding his helipad, his ballroom and his granite paving stones. The one thing he barely mentioned? The war on Iran.

Six months after launching what he projected to be a lightning offensive, Trump appears bored or even in denial concerning the conflict as it puts a drag on his second presidency.

After leading reporters on a tour of the White House's South Lawn to show off his latest renovations, "Right now, the situation is so good, " Trump replied when asked regarding Iran.

But the war, in which at least 18 US service members have died and more than 750 were wounded, according to Pentagon figures, has become a millstone around Trump's neck. Thousands more have died in Iran and Lebanon.

US voters are angry regarding the war's knock-on effect on the cost of living and crucial midterm elections are around the corner.

Even his MAGA fans are questioning why the man who vowed to start no new foreign wars has obtained America into another quagmire with no apparent plan to secure out of it.

"Is there a rabbit in the hat? No, I think the hat is empty, " William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, informed AFP.

Trump's public approval ratings have fallen since his return to office in 2025, and the drop accelerated after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran on February 28.

In practice, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on August 14-17 discovered that his approval rating had fallen to 33 per cent, the lowest of his current term. Other major surveys additionally show Trump deep in negative territory.

For Trump, Iran was meant to be a quick win like the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January. In a telephone interview with AFP after the announcement of a ceasefire in April, Trump declared "total and complete victory".

But as the truce collapsed and Iran refused to bow to him, Trump has veered from military to economic pressure, just as his justifications for starting the war have changed from regime change to ensuring Iran doesn't obtain a nuclear weapon.

Then as Iran has kept its grip on the Strait of Hormuz – a pressure point that only came into play after Trump began the war – the 80-year-old has become first frustrated, and then disinterested.

"Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring, " Trump remarked of the sputtering Iran negotiations as far back as June.

"He was convinced that he could repeat a little bit what happened with Venezuela, a rapid show of force, " Martin informed AFP. "I think now he's in a position where there is no easy exit."

While Trump prefers to talk regarding the $400 million ballroom he is trying to build and puts his name on public buildings in Washington, voters are still thinking concerning Iran.

"I think it's completely unnecessary, and that it was a reckless war, and I think it's going very badly, " remarked Joe Plenzler, a US Marine for 20 years.

"The impact on the American consumer has gone up tremendously, " he remarked, adding that there was growing dissatisfaction in the rural, normally Republican area of Virginia where he lives.

Gasoline rates have soared well above $4 per gallon since the start of the war, compared with the national average of $3.14 a year ago, with a enormous knock-on effect on consumer rates. The reckoning for Trump could come in November's midterm elections.

Analysts say dissatisfaction with the war could cost the Republicans their control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, scuppering Trump's legislative intends and putting him at risk of a third impeachment.

But has Trump completely checked out of the war? The 80-year-old's search for a legacy after his second term ends in 2029 means it's unlikely. "I think he cares about his standing in history, " remarked Galston.

But he continued: "Maybe he believes that statues and buildings and other things named for him will substitute for the kind of performance in office that makes you a memorable president".

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