WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are escalating tonight, after American forces launched another round of strikes at Iranian targets Tuesday.
President Trump said Tuesday, and again Wednesday, that Iran is losing control of the Strait of Hormuz and that their economy is totally collapsing. Still, the conflict continues, with new strikes and new worries for Republicans who face an uphill battle in November’s midterms.
U.S. officials said Tuesday’s strikes were in response to attempted Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and American troops in the region. The strikes follow another exchange of fire just days ago — the first in more than a month.
“We hit them hard last night, very hard,” said President Trump on Wednesday. “We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz, some defensive, some offensive.”
The president went on to call the strikes Tuesday “a very heavy attack,” and added “we’re prepared to do another one, anytime we want.”
House lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill Monday after a month-long recess. Republicans face an uphill battle to keep their House majority as the war lingers into the heat of midterm election season.
“The Iranians simply cannot be trusted. They’ll sit at a negotiation table and say something. They’ll walk away and do the opposite,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “The president has steady hands of the wheel. He’s working every day to try to resolve this and negotiate in a way that is in the best interests of the American people and freedom loving people around the world.”
“Donald Trump promised that he wasn’t going to start endless wars in the Middle East, he was going to stop them,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. on Monday. “He then turned around and got the country involved in a reckless and costly war of choice in Iran that has been an absolute disaster.”
The recent escalation comes as President Trump brushes off the possibility of a deal with Iran and makes new calls for Iranian civilians to “rise up and fight.”
“I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” he added.
“The people of Iran are fighting,” said Dr. Majid Sadeghpour, the political director for the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC).
Dr. Sadeghpour said the ongoing uprising started before the current conflict began and continues to this day. Consistent executions, Sadeghpour said, indicate the regime’s fear of a downfall from within.
“In August during the period they were killing one every 4 hours,” said Sadeghpour.
He said the best way to tackle the regime is with political support for Iran’s organized resistance.
“This regime is more like an onion than it is like a carrot. If you peel a few layers off of it, it still has roots and regenerates the new ones. That is why you need organized resistance from within to uproot this root,” said Sadeghpour.
Also on Wednesday, some relief for U.S. servicemembers on an aircraft carrier that reportedly faced morale issues and supply shortages. The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Thailand today, ending more than eight months without a regular port call. When it returns to California before the end of the year, it could become one of the longest deployments in U.S. Navy history.
