KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s military said Thursday it was engaging hostile missile and drone attacks originating from Iran, as U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the renewed conflict between Washington and Tehran would not last “much longer.”
The Kuwaiti army advised residents to follow security and safety instructions, adding that audible explosions in the country were the result of air defense systems intercepting hostile targets. Iranian state media outlet IRIB reported that the strikes were aimed at U.S. bases in Kuwait.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that American airstrikes against Iran a day earlier constituted a “very heavy attack” and that the U.S. stood ready for further military operations “any time we want.” Asked how long the hostilities might continue, he responded: “I don’t think it will be very much longer ... I don’t know how much more they can take.”
Iran retaliated for Tuesday’s U.S. strikes by targeting regional U.S. allies Jordan and Bahrain, according to officials.
Behind the scenes, top Trump aides are pushing to keep the conflict from escalating before November’s midterm elections, Reuters reported, citing four people familiar with internal discussions. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are said to be advocating for a relatively “quiet” period through the elections to limit Republican losses, as the war grows increasingly unpopular with American voters.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll conducted in August found broad disapproval of Trump’s handling of the Iran war. Among 1,000 respondents, more than two-thirds disapproved of his management of the conflict, with nearly as many expressing dissatisfaction with his overall job performance.
Trump, speaking later Wednesday at a Rose Garden event, said the conflict was not about electoral politics. “We’re doing that not for any other reason, or at least 99%, we’re doing it to help the Middle East, we’re doing it to help Israel, and we’re doing it to help ourselves,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump suggested on his Truth Social network that the Strait of Hormuz be renamed the “Trump Strait,” writing: “Now that we have it under US control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be 'hotter' than ever before!” The White House later posted a map of the Gulf with the suggested designation, saying, “It’s got a nice ring to it.”
Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly threatened to claim U.S. sovereignty over the strategic waterway, even posting a map depicting it as “new US territory.” But when asked by an Associated Press reporter in the Oval Office whether he was serious about the renaming, Trump chuckled and said, “It was just thrown out there.”
The president, 80, has made a series of geographical name changes to international bodies of water during his second term, at least partly to provoke other countries. Last week, amid a trade war with Canada, he signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” — days after floating the idea as a joke. Several of his earlier suggestions that were initially dismissed as humorous have since been implemented.
