Iran, Gas Prices, the Ballroom: Trump Professes Indifference Over Fallout

A White House cabinet meeting began with a lengthy presidential monologue about the state of his presidency. During remarks on Iran negotiations, Trump said the Iranians would be outwaited because he had the midterms, while also claiming indifference to domestic political timing. He previously dismissed concerns about Americans’ financial situation when asked about the war’s economic impact. He presents preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon as essential for humanity, not just for domestic interests. He claims people understand the necessity of stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon. The posture of nonchalance appears alongside mounting fallout from an unpopular, prolonged war and other political controversies.

"They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, he said of the Iranians. We'll outwait him. He's got the midterms.' I don't care about the midterms. Mr. Trump's professed indifference had echoes of his remark earlier in the month when, pressed about the domestic economic impact of the war, he said: I don't think about Americans' financial situation."

"Both were said in the same spirit: His mission to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is so important for humanity, he argues, that it must outweigh any ephemeral concerns on the home front political, economic or otherwise. People understand it, he said at the Wednesday cabinet meeting. They know that, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I'm doing that for the world. I'm not doing it just for us."

"It is unlikely that the president does not actually care about the midterms, the results of which will determine much of the success of the back half of his final term. But Mr. Trump has increasingly adopted a posture of nonchalance in the face of mounting fallout on multiple fronts: an unpopular war that has dragged on longer than he said it would, the creation of a government fund that could benefit his allies, and his fixation on remaking Washington into his vision of a gilded city."

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