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For three months, President Trump has been deeply engaged in the Iran conflict, planning the 38 days of attack, struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and proclaiming \u201ca whole civilization will die tonight,\u201d then backing away to declare a cease-fire and a naval blockage of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
But on Monday, after days of haggling with Iranian officials through intermediaries on a preliminary agreement, Mr. Trump declared it was starting \u201cto get very boring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care if they\u2019re over, honestly,\u201d he told Eamon Javers of CNBC when asked about reports that the Iranians, angry at continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon and low-level conflict with the United States in the Persian Gulf, were threatening to stop negotiating. \u201cI really don\u2019t care. I couldn\u2019t care less. If they\u2019re over, they\u2019re over.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are reasons to doubt that Mr. Trump is truly so unconcerned: Gasoline prices have soared since the war began, with a senior Exxon-Mobil official predicting recently that prices could go far higher, and Republicans are taking note of how deeply unpopular the war with Iran is with their constituents. In recent weeks he has professed indifference<\/a> about a range of issues that carry deep political consequences for him, including the midterm elections and the financial situation that Americans are facing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But even for Mr. Trump, who has veered from threatening the Iranians with annihilation to declaring that they had already agreed to American terms to fuming that they have not, it seemed strange that he thought the whole conflict was becoming a bore.<\/p>\n After all, just hours before he had written in a social media post that negotiations were \u201ccontinuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d There were widespread reports that on Friday he toughened the requirements on a preliminary accord with Iran \u2014 one that would just set up another, deeper negotiation \u2014 because he was concerned about provisions for returning frozen funds to the Iranian government and over who would handle the recovery of Iran\u2019s highly-enriched uranium.<\/p>\n These were details, but vitally important.<\/p>\n Back in March, Mr. Trump confidently predicted the conflict would be over in a few weeks, saying it was not possible to suffer from boredom while facing off against a longtime American adversary: \u201cSomebody said today, they said, \u2018oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly. After that, he\u2019ll get bored.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing boring about this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n