Playbook: “Trump’s private conversations and public statements reveal a president taking a highly unusual twin-track approach to war — pursuing both a rapid exit from a conflict that he knows is hurting his supporters and damaging his party’s prospects at the ballot box, while at the same time mulling a dramatic escalation that would raise the stakes enormously while potentially extending the conflict for weeks to come.”

“One of these wildly diverging outcomes will set the course for the midterms in November, and likely the rest of Trump’s presidency. And it’s far from clear which way he’ll go.”

“Iran’s sprawling security apparatus isn’t solely held together by ideology. It is underpinned by a system of economic incentives that make the regime’s collapse a direct threat to the livelihood of its acolytes,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Since its founding, the Islamic Republic has built a tentacled ecosystem that controls more than half of the economy and acts as a powerful protection policy for the regime. It rewards loyalists with cash and careers and other opportunities in exchange for crushing dissent and staying true to the regime, say academics and analysts who study the Iranian regime.”

“The depth of the social and economic contract is helping the regime maintain cohesion despite the weekslong Israeli and American air campaign eroding its leadership and infrastructure. Only 20% of Iranians support the regime, recent polls show, but they constitute a more cohesive block than the opposition, binding the ruling Shia clerics, paramilitary forces and civilians through economic interests.”

President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that there has been “regime change” in Iran during the course of the war, CNN reports.

Said Trump: “We’ve had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead.”

He added: “The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change, and frankly, they’ve been very reasonable.”

North Korea on Sunday conducted a missile test for an upgraded solid-fuel engine it says can reach the U.S. mainland, NewsNation reports.

President Trump said Sunday that Iran has agreed to “most of” the 15-point list of demands that the US conveyed, via Pakistan, to end the war, CNN reports.

Asked whether Iran responded to those points, the president told reporters aboard Air Force One: “They gave us most of the points. Why wouldn’t they?”

He added: “They’re agreeing with us on the plan. We asked for 15 things, and for the most part, we’re going to be asking for a couple of other things.”

President Trump told the Financial Times he could “take the oil in Iran” and seize Iran’s export hub of Kharg Island, as hostilities in the Middle East continued into its fifth week.

CNN: Trump again weighs seizing Kharg Island, but says it may require troops “for a while.”

“President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump hasn’t made a decision on whether to give the order, the officials said, adding that he is considering the danger to U.S. troops. But the president remains generally open to the idea, according to the officials, because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon.”

“The arrival of 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors is keeping the number of American troops in the Mideast region at over 50,000 — roughly 10,000 more than usual — as President Trump decides on his next step in his month-old war in Iran,” the New York Times reports.

“While it is still unclear just what the Marines, from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, will be charged with, U.S. officials say the president is weighing whether to try a larger attack, like venturing to seize an island or other ground as part of Mr. Trump’s effort to open the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Russia has emerged as one of the early winners in the Iran war, as surging oil prices have given its slumping economy a boost and the Trump administration has eased restrictions on Russian oil,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“But over the longer term, the conflict poses a much bigger threat to its global ambitions.”