The White House, between war and votes 🖌 Bahman Kalbasi, BBC, New York

American media on Wednesday published a series of reports and analyses about the war with Iran.

Reuters, citing documents that, according to the media, leaked from the U.S. Department of Defense, reported that the military cost of this war has exceeded $47 billion.

But the more important question is what the political cost of the war will be for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The answer to this question is likely to become clear in the first hours of early Wednesday morning next week, at the same time as the results of the midterm election are revealed. If Republicans lose their majority in the House of Representatives and even in the Senate, many will interpret this outcome as a direct consequence of the war with Iran and voter dissatisfaction with rising prices and the economic pressures resulting from it.

According to observers, these concerns are one of the reasons the White House has refrained from any escalation of the conflict before the election. In fact, the political cost of the war is so high that the Trump administration prefers that, until the time of voting, the Iran crisis does not return once again to the top of the news agenda.