Name: ‘All options open’: Analyst explains US-Iran ‘constructive ambiguity’ strategy
Uploaded: 2026-03-29T23:08:37.000Z
Duration: 11 min 23 s
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Want to introduce you now to Tim Constantine.

He's a writer for The Washington Times and the host of The Capitol Hill Show.

So, Tim, help us out here, because on Truth Social, President Trump is posting about "productive conversations" and "very good talks," even extending the deadline for further attacks, I think, till April the 6th now is the latest date.

I mean, how do we square that with the Pentagon moving thousands of troops into the region along with military hardware, reportedly war gaming, a coastal raid on Carg Island?

In spite of the diplomatic efforts that we're seeing in Islamabad, what's going on?

So you must, whether you're Iran or the United States, you must continue to plan for all possibilities, including the worst possibilities: hostilities, war, and

So looking at bringing troops in or game planning, what the different options are, that's just a prudent step on both sides to make sure they have an idea.

I do think the president is obviously trying to be optimistic and upbeat,

but when he says it's productive, I think even the tiniest step toward conversation, toward communication, is a positive step, is moving forward.

So I don't think that's a stretch to say that.

We've heard from Iran, "No, we don't want to talk.

We have no interest in negotiating." We've heard a number of absolutes in that.

So after all those absolutes, if the president was hearing, OK, via Pakistan or via someone else, they were messages being passed back and forth,

but that was still a step further than it was for, say, the first 20 days.

Is this all part of some sort of constructive ambiguity, then, to keep as many options on the table as possible,

but at the same time to essentially confound your enemy, confuse your enemy?

There is no guarantee that anything is going to lead to a cease-fire, that anything is going to lead to.

That's cold comfort for us in the Gulf, isn't it?

Yeah, unfortunately, for everybody, for worldwide.

It's the worst in the Gulf, but the entire world is feeling it now.

The United States has to plan for all sides.

And I like talking about winning because both sides claim they are winning.

Both sides' definition of winning appears to be very different.

But from President Trump's standpoint, winning means walking away with at least some of the objectives that he laid out at the beginning.

And the one thing that he's been very consistent about is a nuclear-free Iran.

He wants to see a severely degraded ballistic missile program.

And they'd like to see no more money and support, arming support, for the proxy groups that destabilize the entire region.

So he needs to be able to come away with at least two out of three of those in order to truthfully claim that he's got a victory.

If he goes for 30 days or 60 days, loses a handful of American troops, spends hundreds of billions of dollars,

and comes back with nothing, there really isn't a way for him to claim.

What about winning public opinion back home?

Because according to the CRENYPAC poll, we're looking at 70% of your fellow citizens, independents and Democrats, explicitly reject this war.

Well, I don't think there's a whole lot of people in any poll in the history of the world that said, say, "Yes, I like war." Nobody says that.

I think you need to look at some other polls.

Rasmussen is the most reputable pollster in America.

They've gotten every presidential election right for the last presidential election down to within about a tenth of a point.

And they've actually looked in January, before any of the conflict, they did a poll that looked at 47% of America preferred a Democrat Congress come fall.

But will it shrink enough by the time of the midterms?

That was only a few months down the line.

My point is, you would think it would have gone the other way.

Do you think people will have forgotten by November about everything that's happened in the past few months?

I am amazed at how short the public's attention span is when it comes to voting and comes to politics.

In January of 2020, President Trump was impeached.

In September, October, and November that year, it literally wasn't even mentioned.

Of course it matters, and of course it has an impact.

The people that hate Trump are going to hate Trump.

The people that love Trump are going to love Trump.

But there's probably 40 or 45% in the center who you're trying to capture.

I mean, that's meant to be Donald Trump's global victory lap, isn't it?

The World Cup, obviously for the whole world watching, this is also America's 250th anniversary.

All under the shadow of war, potentially.

And again, that emphasizes why it's important.

If he could end this in the next 30 or 60 days and do so under those three criteria, I said, this will come away as a victory.

If he ends this war without achieving any of those, he'll take a huge hit in the polls.

Tim, not that long ago, we heard from the spokesperson of Qatar's foreign ministry describing Iran's decision to repeatedly attack Gulf nations and close the Strait of Hormuz as the ultimate "I told you so" in the history of "I told you so's." But apparently, Donald Trump didn't see it coming.

Well, whether he saw it coming or not, I don't know.

But I would say Iran's not winning a whole lot of fans or followers from that.

While much of the world isn't thrilled that the United States struck Iran, virtually everyone is lined up against Iran.

If you look at every single Gulf state, with the exception of Yemen, has come out and made some sort of statement.

But if you go around, there are statements that have been made both publicly and privately in the diplomatic circles that they are very, very unhappy with Iran.

Over 100 nations co-sponsored a resolution in the United Nations to condemn Iran.

So if the plan on Iran's part was to get the rest of the world mad at America, they have failed at that.