Since mid-March, President Trump’s military intervention against the Houthis and their “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism” has cost the American taxpayer over $1 billion, with the Pentagon spending more than $775 million in bombs and missiles against the militant group. The U.S. Navy has also lost two jets in the Red Sea, costing more than $65 million each.
Considering the hefty cost of this mission and its limited results, the president’s recent announcement of a ceasefire with the Houthis should be a welcome surprise. But despite this positive development, Trump should use this ceasefire as basis for additional diplomacy.
Although the Houthis and the U.S. have agreed not to target each other, the truce does not apply to Israel, and tit-for-tat strikes have continued. If the president wants to end Houthi belligerency in the region once and for all and avoid being pulled back into the conflict, he should push for a renewed ceasefire in Gaza.
The recent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and on Israel were not random—they are inextricably linked to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the breakdown of the Trump-brokered ceasefire that Israel and Hamas signed in January. Notably, the Houthis stopped attacking all merchant ships once the ceasefire was agreed upon.
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