How an American wadding campaign against the Houthis would have led Trump to a truce

The sudden announcement by American president Donald Trump of a truce with the Houthis rebels of Yemen after two months of an intense bombing campaign came because the military operation was struggling and showed no sign of an imminent conclusion, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing American officials.

According to the report, although the American air strikes caused damage, the Houthis had moved significant assets to underground bunkers, limiting the effects of the offensive and overturned on the American naval ships when Trump said the ceasefire.

He cited three American officials saying that General Michael E. Kurilla, the central command head, had proposed a campaign of eight to 10 months during which the strikes would eliminate the Houthi air defense systems, after which the United States would use targeted assassinations – modeled on the Israel campaign against the Hezbolla terrorist group in Lebanon.

While the Saudis supported the plan and provided a list of a dozen Houthi officials for assassination, the United Arab Emirates were more suspicious, according to the report.

Trump finally approved strikes on air defense and Houthi leaders. But the American president, who has a low tolerance for the military campaigns extended in the Middle East, gave soldiers only 30 days to obtain results.

At 31 days and a billion dollars bill, the president asked for a stage report, said administration officials. But it showed that the United States was heading for an expensive and indefinite military campaign.

Voices in the intelligence community noted that although there was a “degradation” of the capacities of the Houthis, the group could easily find them, according to the report, citing unnamed civil servants.

The Houthis had shot down several US drones of several million dollars and still pulled on naval ships, including an aircraft carrier. Some Pentagon planners feared that the number of precision ammunition used to exhaust stocks that may be necessary elsewhere.

US officials said that outside the seven MQ-9 drones, the Houthis have shot down-each with a price of $ 30 million-the Yemeni group has almost struck several F-16 jets and a F-35 fighter, increasing the specter of American victims.

On April 28, the aircraft carrier USS Truman was forced to make a lively turn to avoid Houthi fires, said several officials, a decision that partially caused a hunting plane to fall over board. Over next week, a Houthi missile hit Ben Gurion airport in Israel, and another F-18 jet fell over the aircraft carrier.

An American official said that at the end of April, a video call between the US Secretary for Defense Pete Hegseth and the officials of Saudi Arabia and Emirati did not agree on how to move forward.

US and Arab officials said Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, had spoke of omanar’s suggestion that the United States stopped bombing, and Houthis would agree to stop American ships in the Red Sea as a gap.

The agreement does not include an agreement to stop shooting other expeditions that the Houthis consider to be linked to Israel, a campaign, as well as direct attacks against Israel, which the group supported by Iran launched in favor of Gaza in the middle of the current war.

On May 5, Trump was ready to end the campaign, according to more than a dozen current and former officials knowing the talks in the president’s national security circle. His announcement of a truce with the Houthis occurred two days later.

Houthis and their supporters broadcast news on social networks with the hashtag, “Yemen beats in America”.

A White House spokesperson said in a statement to the New York Times that “President Trump had a cease-fire, which is another good deal for America and our security.”

According to the NYT, the developments indicated that some in the US national security team underestimated the tenacity of the Houthis and overestimated Trump’s desire to engage in a military conflict in the Middle East.

He noted that during his first mandate, Trump had worked to bring American troops back to the house of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In addition, General Dan Caine, president of the chiefs of joint staff, as well as his predecessors, feared that the fight against the Houthis could draw resources from the Asia-Pacific region.

Trump’s sudden judgment to the countryside had surprised Israel, who still carried out his own strikes against the Houthis.

The Houthis – whose slogan calls for “death to America, death to Israel (and) a curse on the Jews” – began to attack Israel and sea traffic in November 2023, a month after the massacre of October 7.

The Houthis held their fire when a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas in January 2025. At that time, they had drawn more than 40 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones of attack and cruise missiles in Israel, one who killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July, causing a first strike from Israel.

Since March 18, when the FDI have resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have launched around 29 ballistic missiles and at least 10 drones in Israel.

Sirens warning missile attacks have sent hundreds of thousands of Israelis rushing into shelters at all hours of the day and night.

On May 4, two days before Trump announced his truce with the Yemeni terrorist group, a Houthis ballistic missile beat the defenses of Israel and was hit inside the field of Ben Gurion airport, causing minor damage and injuries, and incentive most of the foreign airlines to institute a continuous suspension of the flights of Israel.