President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to witness the return of four US service members killed in Iranian attacks in the Middle East, the White House confirmed. The ceremony, a military ritual reserved for conflict-related deaths, comes as the Pentagon acknowledges that 18 American troops have died and more than 450 have been wounded since the war began in late February. The three soldiers killed in Jordan — First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, Sergeant Angel S. Rampersad and Private Isabella Gonzales — died when an Iranian missile struck their barracks at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. A fourth, Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, was killed in a controlled detonation of an attack drone in Erbil, Iraq. The US Department of Defense says 100 additional personnel have been injured since 7 July alone.

Viewed from Washington, the administration has presented the conflict as an operation to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, with Trump stating that the fallen troops were fighting so that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Yet according to congressional aides and public statements, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have raised questions about the war’s shifting objectives and its open-ended nature. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month found that four in five Americans expect the war to drag on, while only 37 percent approve of US military strikes. The financial cost, estimated by US budget watchdogs at $37.5 billion, and a rise in global oil prices linked to the conflict are fuelling discontent as midterm elections approach.

From Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed responsibility for strikes on US-allied bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, framing them as retaliation for American attacks on Iranian territory. Regional security sources report that a commercial tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, leaving the vessel ablaze and adrift off the coast of Oman. The incident deepens concerns over energy supply routes, with maritime authorities in London warning of heightened risks to shipping. Iranian state-linked media have not released official casualty figures, but the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates that at least 1,700 Iranian civilians have been killed since hostilities began.

Analysts in European capitals note that the war’s trajectory is increasingly shaped by domestic US political calculations. Republican strategists, cited in US media, warn that rising petrol prices and cost-of-living pressures have neutralised the electoral benefits of Trump’s tax cuts, putting the party’s House majority at risk. The Pentagon has faced criticism from American media outlets over delays in disclosing non-fatal casualties, with Central Command’s last major briefing held in early May. A temporary ceasefire agreement collapsed last month, and no new diplomatic track has been announced. The dignified transfer ceremony, the third Trump has attended since the war’s outset, is expected to refocus public attention on the human toll of a conflict that, according to US military officials, shows no sign of abating.