“We will kill Trump,” declares a huge new billboard in central Tehran, amid a wave of anti-US sentiment following the midterm elections. There is a “good degree of triumphalism” inside Iran about the results, said The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.
But although Donald Trump will have to contend with a Democrat-controlled Congress from January, he still has two months to make the most of “greater latitude and little accountability”. The president has paid a high “political price” for his war with Iran, and “having come so far”, he may yet look to “cement his legacy and finish the job”.
What did the commentators say? Trump will not “go gentle into the political twilight of his career”, said the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen. Despite his party’s drubbing at the ballot box, “he retains broad powers to use America’s military might”, and his “determination never to be seen” as a loser might tempt him to “blot out the electoral rout” by taking action abroad.
“The president had been planning with Israel a new offensive after the midterm elections,” said The Times’ Middle East correspondent Samer Al-Atrush. But such is the “historic drop in support for Israel” among US voters that, even before the elections, Trump suggested he might soon “scale back American aid” to the allied nation.
Yet Trump “is peevish”, said The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley. “His will has been thwarted, and his administration has been humiliated by Iran’s defiant resilience.” He blames Iran’s survival, not his own actions, for “the spike in fossil fuel prices”. And if the world sees Iran as some “plucky underdog”, he “will want to shoot that animal”.
What next? “All of Trump’s options are problematic,” said Axios. He could launch further strikes, but that would keep fuel prices high and be “highly unpopular”. Yet he’ll also have a “hard time reaching a deal” for peace if Iran, “sensing weakness”, refuses to make concessions. And while he could just continue to “strangle” Iran with naval blockades and sanctions, that “could take months to show progress”. The bottom line: “there’s no tidy way for Trump to ‘finish the job’”.
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