WASHINGTON – As the Trump administration pivots to what it calls an “economic D-Day” against Iran, American media and foreign policy analysts are delivering a damning verdict on six months of war: the campaign has failed militarily, is collapsing economically, and has left the United States trapped in a quagmire with no viable exit strategy.
“Trump has dug himself into the deepest hole of his life,” David Rothkopf, chief global affairs columnist for The Daily Beast, said on The Daily Beast Podcast. “He was better off with his bankrupt casinos in Atlantic City than he is with this war in Iran.” 
The Washington Post delivered the bluntest assessment of Trump’s predicament, writing that Trump is now mired in a quagmire without an exit strategy. The White House had once hailed the agreement as a “historic breakthrough” that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but instead, the war continues and the Strait remains closed. 
CNN reported that Trump and his team are now banking entirely on economic pressure to force Tehran to accept U.S. terms. But that pivot from military strikes to “economic strangulation” betrays the fact that the war’s original objectives have not been met. 
The latest round of sanctions announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on August 24 under “Operation Economic Outcast” has been met with widespread indifference, according to Fortune magazine. 
The magazine reported that countries maintaining economic ties with Tehran have largely ignored the threats, with analysts assessing the impact of U.S. measures as far weaker than promised. 
Bessent said the U.S. Treasury Department plans to introduce new secondary sanctions every week to intensify economic pressure on Iran.
“You’re going to see a lot more of these every week,” Bessent said ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 (G20) financial leaders in Asheville, North Carolina, on Sunday. “We’re starting with the banks, 
and we’re telling the banks it’s not okay to have Iranian money,” he said. 
China, which purchases 90 percent of Iran’s oil, responded to Washington with a clear warning rather than backing down. Iranian bank branches in Dubai remained open, while commercial flights between Iran and Turkey, as well as the UAE, continued without disruption. 
Stephen Fallon, principal adviser at DBM Consulting, told the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The idea Iran can be knocked out with this is risible — it’s not going to move the needle. It’s not possible to get a completely airtight seal on this thing.” 
Writing in Foreign Affairs, Atlantic Council Iran program director Nate Swanson stated that “maximum pressure is doomed to fail,” noting that 47 years of U.S. pressure on Iran have repeatedly backfired. 
“Trump’s failed war has severely weakened Washington’s ability to pressure Tehran,” Swanson wrote, warning that “future administrations will never be able to repeat the old playbook.” 
Spain’s El Pais, in an editorial, described the United States as “deeply mired in the Iran war quagmire.” The paper noted that six months after Trump promised a four-to-five-week terrorist campaign, the war has become the president’s “heaviest political burden” and a source of instability across West Asia. 
The war has rekindled inflation in the U.S., increased public debt pressure, and dimmed economic growth prospects in an election cycle, El Pais reported. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, oil prices have surged 20% since August alone, and crude and refined product reserves in developed countries have fallen to their lowest levels. 
The war’s staggering cost has drawn sharp scrutiny from American media. Fortune magazine reported that the war is costing American taxpayers approximately $1 billion per day, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimating the first 100 hours alone consumed $3.7 billion. 
The U.S. national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, and the war has driven gasoline prices up 40 percent since February to $4.11 per gallon. Thirty-year mortgage rates have risen to 6.65 percent from 5.98 percent before the war. 
The New York Times, in an op-ed by former Biden envoy Robert Malley and historian Stephen Wertheim, described Trump’s defeat in Iran as a “gift to America” that may finally break the cycle of failed interventions. 
“The unnecessary, unjustified, and illegal war disrupted the region, damaged the global economy, and angered the American people,” they wrote. 
Meanwhile, Bloomberg senior editor Timothy O’Brien wrote that the war “exposed the limitations of U.S. leadership,” describing Trump as “unteachable” and warning that the president could become “even more dangerous if placed in a situation with no good options.” 
With midterm elections approaching and gasoline prices rising, the political cost of Trump’s “losing adventure” is mounting — and the economic noose Washington intended for Tehran appears to be tightening around the United States instead.