WASHINGTON — President Trump needs to wind down the Iran war at least four months before the 2026 midterms — and get China involved — to ensure Republicans won’t suffer political consequences, historian Victor Davis Hanson told “Pod Force One.”
The conservative pundit and classicist told The Post’s Miranda Devine in Wednesday’s podcast episode that he believes Trump “has a self-imposed timeline” for ending the conflict to avoid his party losing the House of Representatives, which could lead to a third Democrat-led impeachment attempt against him.
Having “at least a four- or five-month window” will be enough to get America to “where oil prices will go down, the stock market will steady, interest rates might go lower,” Hanson claimed, noting that Republicans’ massive tax-and-spending law enacted last year will also have had more time to take effect.
If correct, Hanson’s timeline would see the war ending by early June or July, leaving the GOP with mere weeks to make the case that voters should keep them in control of the House and Senate.
Democrats currently hold a five-percentage-point advantage over the GOP on the generic congressional ballot, according to the RealClearPolitics polling aggregator.
Hanson stressed that there was “no military problem” with Operation Epic Fury, which he described as massively successful despite congressional Democrats and formerly supportive right-wing podcast hosts like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly lashing out at the president over the war.
However, he added, “since we’re getting into week six, whatever they’re going to have to do, they’re going to have to do it in two or three weeks, and then they’re going to have to stop.”
“It’ll be a political benefit and give them [the White House] some momentum if they were to open the Strait [of Hormuz] and they could have certification that the [Iranian] uranium is buried deeply into a mountain [or] scattered,” Hanson noted.
“Or they close the Strait, and then they let that ghost of a regime sort of just simmer and let the people deal with it.”
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Hanson emphasized that enlisting Beijing — which purchases roughly 80% of Iran’s oil exports — to add pressure on the regime in Tehran would help conclude the conflict even more quickly.
Trump is planning to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping in mid-May, which Hanson said would provide an easy opportunity for him to “get their attention.”
“I think when he goes to China, he’s going to tell the Chinese … that if they want their oil, they’re going to have to pressure the Iranians as well,” he explained.
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“He could do it in an ‘Art of the Deal,’ not an adversarial way,” added Hanson, referring to Trump’s 1987 best-selling book.
“Just say, ‘Look you can’t re-arm these people. They’re a threat to even your suppliers in the [Persian] Gulf. You just can’t come in here, but we want to eliminate this problem so you can go in here. And if you’re willing to help us, we will not destroy Kharg Island. If you’re not willing to help us, there might not be any oil for you anyway.’ Something like that.”
