Analysis: Trump makes his best case for the war — but fails to ease worries about how it will end | CNN Politics

Donald Trump faced a high bar Wednesday night in his national address on Iran. He appeared before a country that has not only lost confidence in his presidency, according to the latest polls, but that has soured on his new war and is profoundly worried about its impact on the economy. Millions of people in the Middle East and across the world want to know when the war will end and how — or even if — he’ll fix its tumultuous aftermath, including Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which threatens a global recession. In the 20-minute speech from the Cross Hall of the White House, Trump presented his most coherent and temperate explanation of why he went to war, arguing that he could not allow the “terrorists” in the Iranian regime to have a nuclear weapon after 47 years of threatening the United States. He explained the failure of diplomacy and the vicious crackdown by the regime against its own people, leaning into his best political asset: projecting strength. Such arguments may have been more persuasive over a month ago, when Trump launched the onslaught. Weeks of subsequent whiplash filled by his contradictory and shifting war aims may blunt the impact of his more