Trump Gets Bored With the War in Yemen
The month was January 2025. The Houthis were not attacking American ships, and the U.S. was not bombing Yemen. The month is May 2025. The Houthis are not attacking American ships, and the U.S. is not bombing Yemen. In between, there was a whole lot of bombing.
President Donald Trump claimed victory over the Houthis on Tuesday afternoon, after several months of a U.S. air campaign against them. “They just don’t want to fight, and we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings,” he told reporters at the White House. Shortly after, the foreign ministry of Oman—the famously neutral sultanate bordering Yemen—announced that it had brokered a U.S.-Yemeni ceasefire deal “ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping.”
In fact, the Houthi movement, one of the two rival governments in Yemen, has not attacked commercial ships since the beginning of Trump’s term, when Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza. (The Houthis had started the attacks in November 2023, demanding such a ceasefire.) Trump began an air campaign in Yemen three days before the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire broke down. The new Yemeni ceasefire is simply a return to the status quo ante bellum, at least with regard to shipping.
Although no American troops have died during Trump’s war in Yemen, the campaign has been incredibly costly for U.S. military preparedness. The military spent $1 billion in just the first three weeks, a U.S. official told CNN. Last week, the U.S. Navy accidentally dropped a $64 million fighter jet into the sea. It lost another one to a landing accident on Wednesday; the jet was returning to its carrier after the ceasefire was announced. And it’s not just about the financial price tag. The Department of Defense warned Congress behind closed doors that it was “risking real operational problems” due to being stretched thin by the Middle Eastern war.
Significantly, Trump seems to be extracting the U.S. from Israel’s war. Asked whether the deal included a Houthi-Israeli truce, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters that “this is about the Red Sea, the attacking of ships.” Israel was reportedly not even informed of the deal beforehand. After the deal was announced, Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat said that the attacks on Israel would continue and warned Israelis to “stay in your shelters.” Trump told reporters at the White House that he “will discuss that if something happens with Israel and the Houthis.”
Just three days ago, Houthi forces hit the international airport in Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile, wounding six people and shutting down all of Israel’s international air traffic. American troops in Israel, armed with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, reportedly tried and fail
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