Iran War Update: Trump is reportedly shrinking his war aims in Iran.

Coming on the heels of last night’s reporting that the Trump administration has already backed away from its original Iran war aims, today’s update makes the larger point even clearer: they have no idea what they’re doing. They started out talking about regime change and permanently ending Iran’s nuclear program. Now the reported objective is reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which could’ve been achieved by not attacking Iran in the first place. And General Mattis says Iran effectively controls the Strait right now anyway, meaning the US could end this war having increased Iran’s leverage over one of the most important waterways on earth. Even worse, Trump is now reportedly floating some kind of joint control arrangement with Iran over international waters that aren’t supposed to belong to anyone. So after all this, he may wind up handing Iran partial ownership of something it didn’t control before.

At the same time, the White House is reportedly looking for diplomatic off-ramps, even floating bizarre ideas about working through Iran’s parliament speaker, while the military buildup keeps expanding. More troops. More aircraft. More pressure from Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, to finish off Iran’s leadership. But “finishing off” Iran likely means a ground invasion, and that means a much bigger war. The public, meanwhile, wants the opposite. New polling shows Americans overwhelmingly want this conflict ended fast. And, because it’s Trump, there’s also a corruption angle. The Financial Times found suspiciously timed oil trades ahead of Trump’s “productive talks” post that sent crude tumbling. CNN found similarly remarkable timing on Polymarket Iran bets. Hunter Biden’s alleged haul was $24 million. Trump and his orbit are now at an alleged $4 billion and climbing. Meanwhile, a major refinery explosion in Texas is pushing oil and gas prices higher again, with regular gas now at $3.98 a gallon, roughly $1.20 above where it was a month ago before Trump invaded.

And the rest of the news somehow isn’t any less insane. Republicans apparently had a deal with Democrats to fund TSA, and Trump killed it because he didn’t want a deal with Democrats, so you can thank him for the long airport lines. The administration may invite Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko to Mar-a-Lago. Hungary’s foreign minister openly says he briefs Russia after EU meetings. Ukraine struck a major Russian oil export hub. Russia reportedly lost more than 6,000 troops in four days in a failed offensive. And Ukraine says it has irrefutable evidence Russia is still feeding intelligence to Iran. Then, because hypocrisy is the one thing in Trump-world you can always count on, Trump spent the week calling mail-in voting “mail-in cheating,” and then voted by mail in Florida’s special election himself. That’s where we are. The war aims are shrinking. The risks are growing. The public wants out. The insiders are cashing in. And Trump is still all over the place, and quite possibly getting rich.