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WASHINGTON — <\/span>Facing jittery global markets<\/a> and drooping poll numbers<\/a> since launching a war on Iran<\/a>, President Donald Trump<\/a> has cycled from calls for \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d<\/a> to sounding amenable to an end state in which Iran trades one hard-line ayatollah<\/a> for another<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shifting comments from the Republican president and his top aides are adding to the precariousness of the 12-day-old conflict, which is impacting nearly every corner of the Middle East<\/a> and causing economic tremors around the globe. With neither side budging, the war is now on an unpredictable path \u2014 one in which a credible endgame is still unclear.<\/p>\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday told reporters it’s up to Trump \u201cwhether it\u2019s the beginning, the middle or the end\u201d of the war. Trump, during the course of one speech at a House Republican gathering on Monday, went from calling the war a \u201cshort-term excursion\u201d that could end soon to proclaiming \u201cwe haven\u2019t won enough.” <\/p>\n The vacillation has fueled criticism from those who say Trump lacks a clear goal. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have a plan,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told reporters. “They have no timeline. And because of that, they have no exit strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n Since ordering the Iran bombardment, Trump has continually shifted his timelines and goals for his war against Iran, a crosscurrent of rhetoric that has delivered more questions than answers.<\/p>\n Over the last few days, Trump has called for the \u201cunconditional surrender” of Iran’s leaders, while suggesting he’s already succeeded in achieving his objective of decimating Iran\u2019s military. <\/p>\n At the same time, Trump’s team has sought to soothe anxious Americans that this won’t be a long, drawn-out conflict, even as the president has insisted he hasn’t ruled out the option of putting U.S. boots on the ground.<\/p>\n The U.S. military says that it has effectively destroyed the Iranian navy and made huge strides in defanging Iran\u2019s ability to launch missiles and drones at its neighbors throughout the region. And yet, the critical Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which roughly 20% of the world\u2019s oil passes on a typical day, remains effectively closed to business, and Iranian leaders remain unbowed.<\/p>\n The Revolutionary Guard vowed Iran would not allow \u201ca single liter of oil\u201d through the vital waterway until the United States stops its bombing campaign. And Ali Larijani<\/a>, Iran\u2019s top national security official, offered a menacing message on Tuesday after Trump had threatened to attack Iran \u201cTWENTY TIMES HARDER\u201d if Tehran stopped oil flowing through the strait.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sacrificial nation of Iran doesn\u2019t fear your empty threats,\u201d Larijani wrote on X. \u201cEven those bigger than you couldn\u2019t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has struggled to make his case to Americans about why preemptive action against Iran was necessary and how it squares with his pledge to keep America out of the \u201cforever wars\u201d of the last two decades that he’s bemoaned for costing too much money and too many American lives. Thus far, eight U.S. troops have been killed and about 140 injured in the retaliatory salvos<\/a> from Iran throughout the region.<\/p>\n One of several reasons Trump has offered to justify launching the war is that he had a \u201cfeeling\u201d that Iran was getting set to attack<\/a> the United States.<\/p>\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slightly amended that position, telling reporters that the president \u201chad a feeling\u201d that was \u201cbased on fact.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Pentagon officials in private briefings have told congressional staffers that the U.S. does not have intelligence<\/a> indicating that Iran was planning to preemptively attack the U.S.<\/p>\n Recent polling shows<\/a> Trump’s decision to attack Iran hasn’t come with the rallying-around-the-flag effect that has typically accompanied the start of recent U.S. wars. <\/p>\n About half of voters in Quinnipiac and Fox News polls said the U.S. military action in Iran makes the U.S. \u201cless safe,\u201d while only about 3 in 10 in each poll said it made the country safer. A CNN poll found about half of U.S. adults thought the military action would make Iran \u201cmore of a threat\u201d to the U.S., while only about 3 in 10 thought it would lessen the danger.<\/p>\n In that CNN poll, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults said they trusted Trump \u201cnot much\u201d or \u201cnot at all\u201d to make the right decisions about the U.S. use of force in Iran.<\/p>\n European allies are treading carefully after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez faced the wrath of Trump<\/a>, who deemed them not sufficiently supportive<\/a> in backing his war of choice.<\/p>\n But even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a>, who has been broadly supportive of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, said on Tuesday that \u201cmore questions arise with every day of war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbove all, we\u2019re concerned that there is apparently no joint plan for how this war can be brought quickly to a convincing end,\u201d Merz said.<\/p>\n Merz stressed that \u201cGermany and Europe have no interest in an endless war\u201d or in Iran\u2019s territorial integrity disintegrating.<\/p>\n The president has chosen to deflect responsibility for the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran on the first day of the conflict, a strike that killed at least 165 people.<\/p>\n Trump on Saturday blamed the attack on Iran, saying its security forces are “very inaccurate” with munitions. <\/p>\n On Monday, after the investigative group Bellingcat posted verified video<\/a> that showed a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile hitting a Revolutionary Guard facility near the school, causing the explosion, Trump again insisted it could have been Iran’s fault but said that he would accept whatever an ongoing U.S. investigation into the matter might find.<\/p>\n