Where's the door?

President Donald Trump is trying to shift attention away from Iran. This week, he rescheduled his Beijing trip for May and went to Tennessee to talk about crime prevention. But the war may be running on a timetable of its own.  

As war raged from Tehran to Beirut, the president took a detour on Monday from a week filled with meetings with generals, diplomats and world leaders. The unscheduled stop: Elvis' house, naturally.  

The side trip to Graceland took Trump far from the concerns of the battlefield. He is increasingly looking for a break – and an offramp – from a war that has consumed the last four weeks of his presidency. But Trump has few good options: escalate the conflict or settle on a potentially bad deal with a weakened yet defiant Iran that has choked off much of the world's oil supply.   

After vowing to hit Iran's electricity grid, Trump held off on the strikes and claimed to be in conversation with Iranian officials over a deal to end the bombing. Iran denied talks were taking place.   

A clear and quick victory could pay dividends for Trump politically. But a settlement that credibly contains Iran appears to be far off. If diplomacy with Iran continues to show no success, Trump could deploy the growing number of troops in the region in an expanding offensive against Tehran.  

The terms required to wind the war down may involve concessions to Tehran that do not satisfy Israel, which appears to want to press ahead. New reporting by my colleagues shows the influential role Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played in encouraging Trump to strike in the first place.  

Other regional players are more anxious. Gulf states have been warning Trump that the war is veering toward dangerous escalation, regional sources told my Dubai-based colleague Samia Nakhoul.

Trump allies also tell my colleagues and me that Trump is being advised to focus on voters' concerns at home as his self-imposed four-to-six-week deadline for ending the Iran conflict looms. On Saturday, the war will hit the four-week mark.  

Trump's visit to Memphis pivoted from the war and focused instead on efforts to combat street crime. That's an issue that a Trump ally told me remains a political strength for the president.  

But warning signs for Trump are mounting as the war's consequences echo at home. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday showed the president's approval rating hit its lowest point since he returned to the White House. Just 35% of Americans approve of U.S. strikes on Iran.  

The realities of war may resist Trump's desire for a speedy win. As political pressure builds on him, he may seek a little more conversation with his adversaries in Tehran.

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

Trump has improved relations with Pakistan in his second term in office. That relationship may now prove useful as he looks for a diplomatic exit from the Iran war. Islamabad has emerged as a broker between Washington and Tehran, passing along Trump's 15-point proposal to Iran's leadership.    

Pakistan is home to the world's second-largest Shi'ite Muslim population after Iran. But Islamabad also signed a mutual defense agreement last year with Iran's historic rival, Saudi Arabia. It also clashed with Iran as recently as 2024. In recent days, Iran has worked to coordinate with Pakistan, along with Turkey and Egypt. Oman, which sits on the contested Strait of Hormuz, appears to be taking a less active role as an intermediary after its earlier attempts ended with Trump's air strikes in late February.  

This newsletter was edited by Ross Colvin and produced by Rawan Yaghi.