Donald Trump is telling Americans the war with Iran could be over almost as soon as November’s midterm elections are finished.

Inside the White House, some of his most powerful advisers are reportedly preparing him for a far darker possibility:

The conflict could outlast almost his entire presidency.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have privately warned Trump that Tehran may be able to withstand U.S. military and economic pressure all the way through January 2029, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

Reuters independently reported the substance of those conversations, saying the warnings were delivered during private discussions in the Oval Office and Situation Room.

That extraordinary assessment stands in direct contrast to Trump’s public prediction this week.

“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

He argued that Iran was deliberately prolonging the conflict to hurt Republicans politically in November.

But behind closed doors, according to the reports, his advisers are telling him something very different.

Iran may be able to hold out for years.

The difference between those two messages is enormous.

Publicly, Trump is describing a conflict nearing its conclusion.

Privately, his administration is reportedly considering a war that could still be raging when a new president is preparing to enter the White House.

The warning comes as the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its seventh month.

Trump initially suggested the fighting would last only weeks.

Since then, his predictions have repeatedly shifted as Iran resisted military attacks, economic sanctions and efforts to constrain its oil exports.

Now even Vance — one of Trump’s closest political allies — has publicly declined to predict when the fighting will end.

Just last week, the vice president said he could not give a timeline because Iran’s actions ultimately remained unpredictable.

That uncertainty is increasingly visible in American military planning.

The Pentagon has reinforced U.S. forces across the Middle East while preparing some units for extended deployments.

Defense planners are also confronting the strain of maintaining air-defense systems, naval forces and aircraft in the region for a conflict that has already consumed enormous quantities of expensive ammunition.

The administration’s broader strategy has increasingly relied on sustained economic pressure, sanctions and military control around the Strait of Hormuz rather than one decisive campaign that forces Tehran to surrender.

But that approach carries a basic problem.

Economic pressure works slowly.

Iran does not have to defeat the United States militarily to prolong the conflict.

It only has to survive.

That possibility appears to be driving the private warnings reaching Trump.

And Tehran has continued demonstrating that it can impose costs.

American military aircraft were recently damaged during an Iranian strike on a base in Jordan.

Shipping in and around the Persian Gulf has faced repeated attacks.

Oil markets have become increasingly volatile.

And the Strait of Hormuz — one of the most important energy chokepoints on Earth — remains at the center of the confrontation.

The economic consequences are now becoming impossible for American voters to ignore.

Crude oil closed above $100 a barrel Wednesday, its highest level since May, after another round of attacks on Gulf shipping.

Bond markets also reacted nervously as investors worried about the combination of war-related energy inflation and rising U.S. borrowing.

For Trump, that creates a dangerous political feedback loop.

The longer the war continues, the greater the pressure on oil prices.

Higher oil prices make gasoline, transportation and everyday goods more expensive.

Those rising costs then intensify voter frustration just as Republicans are trying to protect their congressional majorities.

That helps explain Trump’s insistence that Iran is deliberately waiting for the midterms.

But there is no public evidence establishing that Tehran’s strategy is being driven primarily by an attempt to influence the U.S. election.

What is clear is that Iran still has significant leverage.

It can threaten shipping.

It can force the United States to expend expensive defensive missiles.

And it can impose economic pain without defeating U.S. forces outright.

Some national-security analysts now openly describe the danger as a potential “forever war.”

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned this week that the conflict could continue for at least another six months and possibly much longer if neither side changes strategy.

The political implications extend beyond Trump.

Vance and Rubio are widely viewed as possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028.

Neither has formally declared a campaign.

But if the war truly survives into 2028, whoever inherits Trump’s political movement could also inherit an expensive conflict, disrupted energy markets and a difficult question:

How do you end a war your own administration spent years insisting it was winning?

Trump clearly wants a very different story.

He wants voters to believe Iran is close to breaking.

His advisers, according to the new reporting, are warning him not to count on it.

And the military posture increasingly suggests the White House itself is preparing for a conflict much longer than the one Trump is describing publicly.

That may be the most uncomfortable revelation of all.

Because after months of shifting deadlines and promises of victory, the private message reaching the president is no longer about when Iran will collapse.

It is about whether Iran can simply wait him out.

And according to some of Trump’s closest advisers, the answer may be yes.