Haunted by Hoover, Trump searches for an endgame in Iran

US President Donald Trump arrives to participate in a roundtable on the American mining industry at the US Department of State in Washington, DC. KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

President Trump is confronting a question that has haunted presidents throughout history: how a war — one that has gone on longer than predicted — can reshape a presidency.

Behind the scenes and in public remarks, Trump has acknowledged seeking an agreement to end the Iran war in hopes of escaping comparisons to former President Herbert Hoover, the Republican whose name became synonymous with economic collapse after the Great Depression.

"I've studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great," he said at the June G7 summit in France. "Not too many are great and some really bad. We had one just recently. The one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn't want that and who knows what would have happened. But bad things happen."

Those remarks were more than an offhand remark. They reveal his sensibilities of what it means to be a good president and how he hopes to be remembered by history. It's recognition that he may be judged not only by what happens on the battlefield, but by the impacts on inflation, gas prices and voters' lives at home.

Trump, born in 1946, grew up during a time when Hoover served as a cautionary example of what not to do during difficult economic times.

Hoover stuck to his Republican principles that the government shouldn't meddle in the economy — a decision many saw as one of the worst political mistakes of the 20th century.

"Trump often reveals what he's thinking with these comments he makes," said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former White House aide to George W. Bush. "They sound like asides, but I think they're indicative of his upbringing. He grew up in a period where Herbert Hoover was a very negative thing to be."