American pundits will debate what further fuel President Donald Trump’s choice of Stephen Miller as his incoming Chief of Staff might pour on the country’s already raging political divisions. But for international observers, his arrival in the White House today will raise a different concern.
Could Miller, a zealous exponent of Trump’s political credo, become Trump’s gladiator in the battle to recapture MAGA and engineer an exit from the Iran war without appearing to surrender? A staunch supporter of Israel, could he help devise a way out for the US without leaving Israel high and dry?
Trump has repeatedly threatened massive, renewed strikes against Iran. Yet Reuters reported on November 8, citing people familiar with Miller’s thinking, that he strongly opposes prolonging the war. The New York Times had earlier reported that ending or winding down the conflict formed part of Miller’s pitch for his new job. His argument was reportedly that the war was alienating some of Trump’s core supporters.
Miller is uniquely equipped to wage a ruthless political battle at home, confront the Democrats and realign Trump with the America First constituency that originally brought him to power. Whether he is also a Machiavellian strategist capable of engineering an American exit without the appearance of surrender remains to be seen.
Trump wants a legacy. Israel wants security. Iran wants survival and strategic independence. Gulf governments want to avoid becoming battlefields. The developing world wants to escape another economic crisis.
The midterm’s blue wave signals to a worried world that American democracy lives on. Voters have pulled it back from the precipice of near-death, but the real danger is that an even more intense war will inflict economic misery on billions of people around the world who did nothing to cause it.
Alarm persists. Some Democrats are warning Trump’s people to lawyer up, even as a defiant red hat emblazoned with VETO sits on his desk, signaling how he intends to slap down a hostile Congress.
The White House didn’t mince words. It gave us Trump, wearing his trademark furious, unblinking glare, both fists planted firmly on the Resolute Desk, beneath a striking caption: “TRUMP IS STILL YOUR PRESIDENT.”
Trump typically rejects the notion that he is a lame duck. He will fight, fight, fight. He wants a legacy; Israel wants security; Iran wants survival and strategic independence; Gulf governments want to avoid becoming battlefields; poor countries want to escape economic devastation.
But de-escalation does not rest entirely in Trump’s hands. He may have regarded the war as an excursion, but for Israel and Iran it is existential. For Israel, the stakes include the security and survival of the world’s only Jewish-majority state, the national home of a people whose history is scarred by centuries of persecution. For Iran, they extend beyond the survival of its present regime to the fate of a civilization stretching back five millennia.
The Gulf states could bear the brunt of Iranian retaliation, with severe damage to their oil installations, desalination plants, shipping routes and commercial centers. A prolonged disruption to energy supplies and trade would hit the world’s poorest populations hardest, driving up the costs of food, fuel and borrowing in countries least able to afford them.
Even Trump’s MAGA constituency is showing signs of impatience with the rising cost of fuel and groceries. A July POLITICO/Public First poll found that support among MAGA voters for continuing the war regardless of its domestic economic costs had fallen from 50 to 37 per cent in just two months.
There are substantial reservations about the war among evangelical Christians, traditionally among Israel’s strongest American supporters. A June Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 54 per cent considered the use of military force against Iran inconsistent with their Christian beliefs.
A March 2026 Pew survey found that 59 per cent of Americans considered the decision to use military force against Iran wrong. A September Economist/YouGov poll found that only 24 per cent supported a much larger military campaign against Iran. Internationally, an Ipsos survey across 31 countries found that 81 per cent favored keeping their countries out of the conflict.
Failure to find a way out of the Iranian quagmire could saddle Trump with a bitter legacy of severe destruction in Israel, the Gulf and Iran alongside economic devastation inflicted on the world’s poorest populations, rather than the triumphant monuments he hopes to leave behind in Washington.