As the political fallout from the Iran war begins to rain down on President Donald Trump and his administration, attention is turning to who will ultimately accept the blame for the drawn-out conflict that helped serve the Republican Party with a stinging midterm defeat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is adamant it won't be him. On Thursday, Hegseth said he believed conflict was a "courageous and historic effort," regardless of how American voters feel about it.
And Trump, for the moment, is standing by the Pentagon chief. The president said he had "every intention" of keeping Hegseth on, but, in a nod to potential daylight between the two, acknowledged he had received calls about the defense secretary's political future. Trump is also reportedly fishing for advice on whether Hegseth should stay on after the president and his top officials conceded the Iran war was at least partly responsible for the Democrats retaking both the House and the Senate this week.
A total of 63 percent of voters believed the U.S. made the wrong decision in launching attacks on Iran, according to NBC exit polls published Wednesday. Nearly three quarters of Americans casting their ballot in the midterms said the war was a crucial or major factor in how they chose to vote. The confrontation is now in its ninth month with no deal on the horizon to bring the fighting to a close, nor any agreement taking shape to limit Iran's nuclear program.
The conflict, jarring with the administration's pledge to curb foreign intervention and avoid being bogged down in wars abroad, has inflated fuel prices at American pumps and squeezed the wallets of U.S. consumers. "For the White House the question is: Who takes the fall?," said Julius van de Laar, a political strategist who worked on former President Barack Obama's election campaigns. But rather than point the finger at Hegseth, Trump may be considering pushing out General Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. Both military chiefs have been high-profile in the White House's war effort since the opening salvos of the U.S.-led attacks on Iran in February. Caine or Cooper are more likely to be targeted by Trump as he searches around for somebody to blame, an unnamed source familiar with discussions taking place told The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Caine is the U.S.' top soldier, responsible for advising the president on military matters. Cooper, meanwhile, commands the troops deployed in the Middle East and manages all military operations in the area as the chief of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
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