Domenico Montanaro

I mean, tariffs are really a big factor here.

You know, he's been threatening tariffs since the beginning of his second term in office.

But those threats don't carry the same weight since the Supreme Court made it harder for him to use them

whenever and however he wants.

Yeah.

And the president is trying to walk this line.

Like he's not saying, oh, you know, we're going to put troops in the ground.

In fact, he's saying.

opposite that no one's talking about doing that.

And yet there's these movements of troops that are headed to the region, the Marines that are in the region.

And, you know, and I think that they continue to do this between the President and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in particular, to sort of downplay the long term potential for this war, because they know that it's politically dangerous to try to sell the American people

On a prolonged war with American, quote unquote, boots on the ground.

You know, I would say, though, I think the U.S.

could maybe do it on its own.

But at what cost is really the issue, right?

Like Trump doesn't want to absorb all of the cost.

casualties that could come from something as dangerous as trying to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

And this is pretty predictable because this war is already costing billions of dollars.

And I think it's kind of notable because during the campaign, a lot of the MAGA base and was sold by Trump, this idea that he wouldn't get into, quote unquote, forever wars, which the defense secretary continues to use that term to say this is not going to be that.

But in other words, prolonged wars in the Middle East in particular, you wouldn't have boots on the ground of Americans going overseas to fight other people's wars were things that Trump used to say.