Trump’s Allies Want to Know the Plan in Iran — If There Is One

President Donald Trump’s shifting statements on Iran have made it difficult for even allies to know the real plan for the war — let alone defend it to the American people.

Two House members told NOTUS that they weren’t given talking points on the current status of the war by the White House before they left Washington for the August recess. A MAGA strategist who had been invited to private briefings about the war with Vice President JD Vance and other top officials said those meetings have ceased and information is scarce. And it’s been more than 100 days since the Department of Defense held a press briefing for reporters.

“I don’t feel like I have good insight into their messaging strategy,” one person close to the Department of Defense said, requesting anonymity to speak freely. “I don’t feel like I understand it actually at all.”

The lack of cohesive messaging has led some to conclude that there is no firm plan to end the conflict — which has now stretched on for six months — ahead of the midterm elections. Trump won’t be on the ballot, but the high prices that most Americans associate with the Iran war will be.

“For an ongoing war, there’s not all that much messaging around it,” a Republican strategist said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly.”And the messaging around it is just — it’s bungled, it’s bargled, it’s confused.”

Many of the president’s allies are eager for a conclusion to the war — but at a minimum, they want some clarity on what’s next. For some allies, it’s not clear what victory is supposed to look like.

“How do we finish the job? It has not been answered yet,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told NOTUS in an interview this month.

The administration has held over 30 bipartisan briefings with senior officials for Congress since the war began and during negotiations with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has typically led the briefings of Armed Services Committee members, according to multiple senators.

The White House objected to the idea that the path in Iran is unclear.

“President Trump has destroyed Iran’s military capabilities and is crushing what’s left of its abysmal economy with the most successful naval blockade in world history,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement to NOTUS. “The President has been clear: He will always advance America’s interests and never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

A memorandum of understanding meant to kick off the process of ending the war has expired. Just this week, the Trump administration has presented two very different pictures of the war.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a key negotiator with Iran, told Fox News on Monday that conversations with parts of the Iranian government were “more robust than it’s maybe ever been.”

The president contradicted him the next day.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

On Wednesday, when asked by NOTUS when he would restart negotiations with Iran, Trump said he might “at some point. But right now, I think the situation is so good.”

Later, he posted on Truth Social that he was preparing an economic crackdown meant to devastate Iran and any of its allies. “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” he wrote.

“This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY,” he wrote, later adding: “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

Denying Iran a nuclear weapon has been the only consistent message throughout the war. It’s what Iran hawks want the public to hear. But one House Republican who supports the war said that while it’s the right message, it can be difficult for the public to grasp the nuances of the dangers of nuclear enrichment.

Over the past few weeks, Trump has told his advisers he’s willing to wait to see how a strategy to further isolate Iran’s economy takes hold, according to a senior administration official. They said the president’s hope is to outlast the will of the Iranians, whom Trump has called “crazy motherfuckers” in private.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to release a plan this week for economic penalties, which officials have called the most severe sanctions yet on actors who help fund Iran.

Mark Cancian, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the current phase a “battle of economic attrition.”

The U.S. could continue fighting Iran “for a considerable amount of time,” Cancian said. But the bigger problem is what each additional strike means for the U.S.'s overall capacity as a world power.

“Every missile that we use is one fewer that would be available for conflict in the Western Pacific,” he said.

Trump has also floated other options, including threatening to turn America’s military power on Oman and to accelerate strikes on Iran, despite outside experts’ warnings to preserve more of the remaining stockpiles. The president has been briefed repeatedly on the stockpile of munitions, according to two sources familiar with the conversations, one of whom said the current arsenal is sufficient to carry out the plans Trump has been presented should he choose to escalate the war again.

The uncertainty has left some in the region with a grim conclusion: “They have no clear plan, unfortunately,” a Middle Eastern diplomat told NOTUS.

The mixed messages on what’s next are grating for some Americans, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), a Trump ally, told NOTUS.

“One of the challenges is that people on either end of the spectrum — whether you’re a hardcore Iran hawk versus a geopolitical dove — you might get frustrated by the on-again, off-again use of lethality, followed by short stints of negotiation,” Cramer said. “But that’s not surprising to me with Donald Trump because, at the end of the day, he sees things through the lens of a negotiator and a transactional political figure.”

Sources close to Trump say the domestic pressures from the war are not a part of his calculus, but aides do consider them.

Surveys and polls show a slightly lower approval for Trump’s handling of the war than his overall approval rating, which hovers between 27% and 35%. A July 30 AP/NORC Center poll found that 64% of American adults believe the war hasn’t been worthwhile, and 72% want the U.S. to prioritize lowering gas prices. And many said they don’t even know what America is fighting for.

Even lawmakers who have received private briefings from the administration are unclear.

“What’s the endgame?” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) said.