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Why Trump Suddenly Declared Victory Over the Houthi Militia
When he approved a campaign to reopen shipping in the Red Sea by bombing the Houthi militant group into submission, President Trump wanted to see results within 30 days of the initial strikes two months ago.
By Day 31, Mr. Trump, ever leery of drawn-out military entanglements in the Middle East, demanded a progress report, according to administration officials.
But the results were not there. The United States had not even established air superiority over the Houthis. Instead, what was emerging after 30 days of a stepped-up campaign against the Yemeni group was another expensive but inconclusive American military engagement in the region.
The Houthis shot down several American MQ-9 Reaper drones and continued to fire at naval ships in the Red Sea, including an American aircraft carrier. And the U.S. strikes burned through weapons and munitions at a rate of about $1 billion in the first month alone.
It did not help that two $67 million F/A-18 Super Hornets from America’s flagship aircraft carrier tasked with conducting strikes against the Houthis accidentally tumbled off the carrier into the sea.
By then, Mr. Trump had had enough.
Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, who was already in Omani-mediated nuclear talks with Iran, reported that Omani officials had suggested what could be a perfect offramp for Mr. Trump on the separate issue of the Houthis, according to American and Arab officials. The United States would halt the bombing campaign and the militia would no longer target American ships in the Red Sea, but without any agreement to stop disrupting shipping that the group deemed helpful to Israel.
U.S. Central Command officials received a sudden order from the White House on May 5 to “pause” offensive operations.
Announcing the cessation of hostilities, the president sounded almost admiring about the militant Islamist group, despite vowing earlier that it would be “completely annihilated.”
“We hit them very hard and they had a great ability to withstand punishment,” Mr. Trump said. “You could say there was a lot of bravery there.” He added that “they gave us their word that they wouldn’t be shooting at ships anymore, and we honor that.”
Whether that proves to be true remains to be seen. The Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Israel on Friday, triggering air raid sirens that drove people off beaches in Tel Aviv. The missile was intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
The sudden declaration of victory over the Houthis demonstrates how some members of the president’s national security team underestimated a group known for its resilience. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of Central Command, had pressed for a forceful campaign, which the defense secretary and the national security adviser initially supported, according to several officials with knowledge of the discussions. But the Houthis reinforced many of their bunkers and weapons depots throughout the intense bombing.
Significantly, the men also misjudged their boss’s tolerance for military conflict in the region, which he is visiting this week, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Trump has never bought into long-running military entanglements in the Middle East, and spent his first term trying to bring troops home from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What’s more, Mr. Trump’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, was concerned that an extended campaign against the Houthis would drain military resources away from the Asia-Pacific region. His predecessor, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., shared that view before he was fired in February.
By May 5, Mr. Trump was ready to move on, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former officials with knowledge of the discussions in the president’s national security circle. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal discussions.
“We honor their commitment and their word,” Mr. Trump said in remarks at the White House on Wednesday.
A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said in a statement to The New York Times that “President Trump successfully delivered a cease-fire, which is another good deal for America and our security.” She added that the U.S. military had carried out more than 1,100 strikes, killing hundreds of Houthi fighters and destroying their weapons and equipment.
The chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the operation was always meant to be limited. “Every aspect of the campaign was coordinated at the highest levels of civilian and military leadership,” he said in an emailed statement.
A former senior official familiar with the conversations about Yemen defended Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, saying he took a coordinating role and was not pushing for any policy beyond wanting to see the president’s goal fulfilled.
General Kurilla had been gunning for the Houthis since November 2023, when the group began attacking ships passing through the Red Sea as a way to target Israel for its invasion of Gaza.
But President Joseph R. Biden Jr. thought that engaging the Houthis in a forceful campaign would elevate their status on the global stage. Instead, he authorized more limited strikes against the group. But that failed to stop the Houthis.
Now General Kurilla had a new commander in chief.
He proposed an eight- to 10-month campaign in which Air Force and Navy warplanes would take out Houthi air defense systems. Then, he said, U.S. forces would mount targeted assassinations modeled on Israel’s recent operation against Hezbollah, three U.S. officials said.
Saudi officials backed General Kurilla’s plan and provided a target list of 12 Houthi senior leaders whose deaths, they said, would cripple the movement. But the United Arab Emirates, another powerful U.S. ally in the region, was not so sure. The Houthis had weathered years of bombings by the Saudis and the Emiratis.
By early March, Mr. Trump had signed off on part of General Kurilla’s plan — airstrikes against Houthi air defense systems and strikes against the group’s leaders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named the campaign Operation Rough Rider.
At some point, General Kurilla’s eight- to 10-month campaign was given just 30 days to show results.
In those first 30 days, the Houthis shot down seven American MQ-9 drones (around $30 million each), hampering Central Command’s ability to track and strike the militant group. Several American F-16s and an F-35 fighter jet were nearly struck by Houthi air defenses, making real the possibility of American casualties, multiple U.S. officials said.
That possibility became reality when two pilots and a flight deck crew member were injured in the two episodes involving the F/A-18 Super Hornets, which fell into the Red Sea from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman within 10 days of each other.
Meanwhile, several members of Mr. Trump’s national security team were battling disclosures that Mr. Hegseth had endangered the lives of U.S. pilots by putting operational plans about the strikes in a chat on the Signal app. Mr. Waltz had started the chat and inadvertently included a journalist.
American strikes had hit more than 1,000 targets, including multiple command and control facilities, air defense systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations, the Pentagon reported. In addition, more than a dozen senior Houthi leaders had been killed, the military said.
But the cost of the operation was staggering. The Pentagon had deployed two aircraft carriers, additional B-2 bombers and fighter jets, as well as Patriot and THAAD air defenses, to the Middle East, officials acknowledged privately. By the end of the first 30 days of the campaign, the cost had exceeded $1 billion, the officials said.
So many precision munitions were being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners were growing increasingly concerned about overall stocks and the implications for any situation in which the United States might have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China.
And through it all, the Houthis were still shooting at vessels and drones, fortifying their bunkers and moving weapons stockpiles underground.
The White House began pressing Central Command for metrics of success in the campaign. The command responded by providing data showing the number of munitions dropped. The intelligence community said that there was “some degradation” of Houthi capability, but argued that the group could easily reconstitute, officials said.
Senior national security officials considered two pathways. They could ramp up operations for up to another month and then conduct “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Red Sea using two carrier groups, the Carl Vinson and the Truman. If the Houthis did not fire on the ships, the Trump administration would declare victory.
Or, officials said, the campaign could be extended to give Yemeni government forces time to restart a drive to push the Houthis out of the capital and key ports.
In late April, Mr. Hegseth organized a video call with Saudi and Emirati officials and senior officials from the State Department and the White House in an effort to come up with a sustainable way forward and an achievable state for the campaign that they could present to the president.
The group was not able to reach a consensus, U.S. officials said.
Now joining the discussions on the Houthi operation was General Caine, Mr. Trump’s new Joint Chiefs chairman, who was skeptical of an extended campaign. General Caine, aides said, was concerned about supply of assets he thought were needed for the Pacific region.
Also skeptical of a longer campaign were Vice President JD Vance; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Mr. Hegseth, people with knowledge of the discussions said, went back and forth, arguing both sides.
But Mr. Trump had become the most important skeptic.
On April 28, the Truman was forced to make a hard turn at sea to avoid incoming Houthi fire, several U.S. officials said. The move contributed to the loss of one of the Super Hornets, which was being towed at the time and fell overboard. That same day, dozens of people were killed in a U.S. attack that hit a migrant facility controlled by the Houthis, according to the group and aid officials.
Then on May 4, a Houthi ballistic missile evaded Israel’s aerial defenses and struck near Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv.
On Tuesday, two pilots aboard another Super Hornet, again on the Truman, were forced to eject after their fighter jet failed to catch the steel cable on the carrier deck, sending the plane into the Red Sea.
By then, Mr. Trump had decided to declare the operation a success.
Houthi officials and their supporters swiftly declared victory, too, spreading a social media hashtag that read “Yemen defeats America.”
Ismaeel Naar contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
At her home in Stanton on Thursday, Leticia Rinker, 71, kept thinking she was smelling gas.
She repeatedly checked the burners on her stove. She threw away an old pan, thinking maybe she had burned some grease on it while cooking chicken that day.
Then, her head started hurting.
The smell was still in the air Friday morning when she went for a walk, she said.
“Now I know why I smelled it and why I got the headache,” Rinker said Friday night after evacuating her home while emergency crews frantically worked to stop a damaged chemical tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove from exploding.
Rinker, who is retired, had a long career in the automotive industry. “I know smells,” she added.
Rinker was staying at the evacuation center at the Garden Grove Sports & Recreation Center, with her two pugs, Lulu and Daisy, and her daughter’s two cats, Cedric and Elvis.
She was walking Friday morning at around 11 a.m. when a neighbor called and told her she needed to get the pets and go.
Her daughter and son-in-law, who live with her, were on a trip out of state, so she spent most of the day in her car at the evacuation center with the pets. The evacuees, she said, were remarkably calm, and relief workers fed them “some delicious spaghetti.”
“Everybody’s very relaxed, just chilling, sitting down,” she said. “A lot of people have their dogs. It’s OK, you know? It’s not a chaos thing.”
Still, she said, she had no idea when she could go home and was upset she had not grabbed food for the pets because she did not think she would be gone so long.
“I’m just hanging out in my car,” she said from the evacuation site. “I see no sense in going anywhere and wasting my gas, as high as it is.”
Rinker said she had friends and neighbors who refused to leave.
Rinker has lived in Stanton, near the aerospace manufacturer, for three decades and said she had never experienced anything like this.
“All I need is for my house to explode,” she said sarcastically.
Then, with a sigh: “I’m trying not to think about it. I love my house.”
THE
OFFICE OF TH
DIRECTOR
*******
OF
NATIONAL
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Director of National Intelligence
May 22, 2026
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I am deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half.
Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.
Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role. His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge. I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.
While we have made significant progress at the ODNI — advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community — I recognize there is still important work to be done. I am fully committed to ensuring a smooth and thorough transition over the coming weeks so that you and your team experience no disruption in leadership or momentum.
Thank you for your understanding during this deeply personal and difficult time for our family. I will remain forever grateful to you and to the American people for the profound honor of serving our nation as DNI.
With love and aloha,
Tulsi Gabbul
Tulsi Gabbard
Director of National Intelligence
A customer pumps gas into his car at a Chevron station on May 4 in Los Angeles, Calif. Gas prices have surged to a 4-year high, as tensions in the Middle East continue. Gasoline in California is over $6 a gallon.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America
The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.55, according to AAA; that’s a four-year high, unwelcome news for drivers as the U.S. heads into one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
AAA estimates a record 45 million Americans will travel this weekend, despite high prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Gasoline prices have been elevated since the start of the war in Iran, and there’s no sign of relief on the horizon. High prices are angering voters and straining household budgets.
In California, which has the highest gasoline prices in the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom is openly feuding with the oil giant Chevron, discouraging Californians from filling up at its stations.
Chevron and the state have been in a tense relationship for years; Chevron moved its headquarters out of California in 2024 after complaining about state and local regulations, and is currently buying oil shipped through an offshore pipeline that California has attempted to keep shut down. In the latest salvos, Chevron has posted placards at California gas stations blaming state policies for the high prices, while Newsom’s office is telling Californians they can get cheaper gas at unbranded stations.
Californians, if you’re hitting the road this holiday weekend, be sure to AVOID Chevron.
Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean, even if it doesn’t have a fancy… pic.twitter.com/FMTnNHE0Bn
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) May 21, 2026
But where does all this leave drivers? Despite high prices, most Americans are unwilling, or unable, to give up on driving. Americans have been logging more miles since the war with Iran started, according to the analytics company Arity, which tracks driving habits.
What can you do to cut costs? We asked the experts for ideas.
Drive smoothly. Pay less
The key to getting the most miles out of each gallon is driving efficiently. That means smooth acceleration, soft braking and slowing down.
Underinflated tires, heavy boxes in the back seat and an unused ski or luggage rack on the top of the vehicle can also make it less fuel efficient.
Some high-performance vehicles require premium gasoline. But if it’s only recommended, you can skip it without damaging the car, according to Consumer Reports’ deputy auto editor, Jonathan Linkov. “All cars, except the most esoteric supercars or older cars, can run fine on regular,” said Linkov.
Are you considering going electric?
Data suggests that higher gasoline prices have many drivers at least thinking about giving up gas-powered cars altogether.
But the data on sales isn’t so clear-cut. New-EV sales are still depressed following the abrupt end of a $7,500 federal consumer tax credit last fall. It’s also tax refund season, which can push up car sales of all types, compared with the previous month. CarGurus reports that used-EV sales did seem to accelerate in the month of March, and Cox Automotive reports strong prices for used EVs at wholesale auction, noting that rising gas prices “may have positively influenced demand.” On the other hand, data from the sites iSeeCars.com showed no appreciable shift in used-EV sales.
It’s not surprising to see a rise in shoppers’ interest before a rise in actual sales, especially for a purchase as significant as a vehicle. “What consumers are viewing on the site tends to be an earlier indicator than sales,” says Kevin Roberts, the director of economic and market intelligence with CarGurus.
But analysts note that high gasoline prices do motivate shoppers to select for more fuel-efficient or entirely electric vehicles — if prices stay elevated for a long time.
An average driver can save $1,800 a year
The more you drive, the more you stand to save from switching to a battery-powered car, says Janelle London, the co-executive director of a nonprofit called Coltura, which advocates against gasoline. “Across the entire U.S., an average driver doing, say, 15,000 miles a year already is going to save $1,800 a year by switching to an electric car,” London says. “But if you’re talking about a big driver, somebody who does maybe 25,000 miles a year, they’re going to be saving on average $3,000 a year by making the switch.”
And as the cost of gas keeps rising, she says, “we’re seeing the savings just skyrocket up.”
Coltura has an online tool that car shoppers can use to estimate potential savings from going electric.
Those savings vary based not just on how much you drive but also on where you live, thanks to differences in the local prices of gasoline and electricity. Yale Climate Connections recently published a map comparing the price of charging with the price of gasoline, by looking at the cost of enough electricity to take you as far as 1 gallon goes in a similar gas car: In North Dakota, driving an EV is like paying less than a dollar a gallon, but in California it’s more like $2.70 a gallon.
Or you can crunch your personal numbers more precisely by comparing the cost per mile using your own electricity rates, local gasoline prices and the efficiency of the gas and electric vehicles you’re comparing. (The extremely lazy route? Multiply your home’s cost per kilowatt-hour for electricity by 10. That’s very roughly comparable to how many dollars per gallon you’d pay to fuel your car. The national average cost for home electricity is $0.17 right now, so, ballpark, that’s like paying $1.70 for gasoline.)
Consider factors beyond gasoline
If you’re thinking of switching to an EV to save money, there are other factors to weigh as well. Maintenance savings can also be substantial — electric vehicles need new tires and not much else. On the other hand, insurance can be pricey. You might also weigh nonfinancial factors, like how much you value the environmental benefits of an EV or the merits of a quiet ride.
Charging is also crucial. Can you charge at home, which is far more convenient and affordable than charging at stations? If so, will you need to install a dedicated, higher-speed charger, which comes with an installation cost, or can you get by with a standard outlet?
The more you drive and the larger your vehicle is, the more likely it is you’ll need to add a charger. The Environmental Protection Agency has a calculator that can help with that decision.
Could you get by without driving at all?
Another option, of course, is to pursue alternatives to driving.
But data compiled by the app Transit shows that ridership was steady for most of March and actually dropped slightly in the week ending April 4.
That’s no surprise, says Stephen Miller, the policy lead at Transit; the Easter holiday may have pulled ridership down, and gas prices have been elevated only for a few weeks. “Historically, people only make larger changes that show up as a significant shift from driving to public transit if the price of gas goes up — and stays up,” he says. Year over year, transit ridership continues to increase overall, although it has yet to fully recover from the collapse in public transit use at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jerick White, who lives in Houston, bought his first e-bike in March. There were several reasons explaining why he switched from a car to two wheels, but saving on gasoline was one of them. Between the cost of the car, maintenance and gas, he says, “it just became too unbearable, unmanageable and expensive.”
He hasn’t calculated exactly how much money he’s saving, but, he says, it’s “a lot of money for sure.” One important factor in his decision: White works from home now and lives close to a grocery store and other places where he needs to run errands. Biking around “is very, very reliable if you stay in a neighborhood and you work close by,” he says.
If getting an EV makes the most sense for people with the longest commutes, trading out of a car entirely is for the other end of the spectrum: people who don’t drive much or take a lot of short trips. Veo, the bike and scooter app, reports that its average trip length is 1.9 miles.
If it works for your lifestyle, White says, biking has benefits in addition to savings on gas. “I feel like a kid again when I’m riding it,” he says. “It’s very enjoyable.” And: “Oh, my goodness, I can avoid the traffic.”
Spend more on fuel by cutting more elsewhere
Finally, some folks are willing to spend more at the pump — but cut back elsewhere. High fuel prices were not enough to stop Julie and Vince Rossi from taking their first cross-country road trip in their new recreational vehicle. They sold their house to live in a 22,000-pound RV full time and went on their longest road trip yet, driving from Arizona to Virginia.
Diesel costs even more than gasoline — and its price has gone up faster since the war started — so to afford their now-doubled fuel budget, they’re skipping the museums and amusement parks for free attractions. “If we want to continue on this lifestyle, we either look for the lowest prices or we need to cut spending somewhere else,” Julie Rossi says.
A previous version of this story ran on April 7, 2026.
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