Wall Street Journal: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the coming days of the conflict would be decisive, and that the number of projectiles launched by Iran in the past 24 hours represented the lowest during the war.”

Bloomberg: “Donald Trump’s NATO allies are increasing resistance to getting involved in his Iran war, risking a deeper rupture in the already strained military bloc.”

“Spain closed its airspace to US jets Monday, and Italy denied US military aircraft bound for the Middle East permission to land at a base in Sicily, according to a person familiar with the matter. Poland said it has no plans to relocate its Patriot batteries, following a report that the US has suggested Warsaw consider sending one of its systems to shore up air defenses in the Middle East.”

President Trump said on social media that France wouldn’t let U.S. planes headed to Israel fly over French territory.

Said Trump: “France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ who has been successfully eliminated! The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!”

Wall Street Journal: “President Trump pushed other nations to launch their own operation to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, blaming countries like the U.K. for not joining the U.S.-Israeli mission against the Islamic Republic.”

Said Trump, on Truth Social: “Build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

“As the war in Iran has entered its second month with no negotiations yet scheduled between the major combatants, President Trump is facing several interlocking decisions that will determine how long American forces will stay engaged in the battle, and with what kind of risks,” the New York Times reports.

“The most pressing choice seems to be whether he should narrow his war aims in hopes of pushing through a negotiated settlement with a new crop of Iranian leaders…”

“But if the Iranians continue to rebuff him, claiming as they did on Monday that there is nothing to talk about until the United States and Israel stop bombing Iranian territory, he has different choices to make.”

CNN: “It was at that moment, before an operation, that prior defense secretaries would typically stress to the president that there were potential downsides to such a move. In the case of Iran strikes, those would include the likely economic fallout should Tehran retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz and the limits of a military air campaign when it comes to destroying the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium or in fomenting regime change.”

“But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth not only validated the president’s idea to move forward, he also downplayed the inherent risks of the conflict spiraling out of control… Nobody in the room during that critical meeting emphasized the potential risks of starting the war.”

“President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.”

“There are also military options the president could decide on, but they aren’t his immediate priority.”