Does Trump have a strategy for the Iran war? Probably not—and that’s deadly

Reality intrudes, however. Fully incapacitating Iran doesn’t seem to be in the offing, and a new hardliner, Mojtaba Khamenei, has succeeded his late father as the country’s supreme leader. The Strait of Hormuz remains a choke point. Trump, who rarely takes advice, is getting earfuls from a cast of amateurs, among them Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Steve Witkoff, his special envoy to the Middle East; and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.