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U.S. President Donald Trump decided against ordering airstrikes on Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis for now, after briefly directing the Pentagon to prepare strikes following a personal appeal from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to administration officials cited by the New York Times (NYT).
Most of Trump's inner circle reportedly opposed opening another front in the war with Iran.
The question of whether to yield to Saudi pleas for military help against the Houthis had "bedeviled" Trump for two weeks, the Times reported.
Things came to a head Thursday when bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's leader and a major U.S. ally in the Iran war, called Trump to again implore him to help blunt the rapidly advancing group.
Trump had met with advisers just a day earlier and told them he did not favor strikes, but reversed himself after speaking with the crown prince, telling the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis.
By midday Sunday, Trump appeared to have reversed himself once more: there would be no U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis, at least for the time being, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss military planning.
The White House press office declined to discuss Trump's deliberations on the record; a senior administration official said only that "the U.S. has a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and we will always defend our allies."
Trump's pullback came as commanders had already approved target lists and troops were loading bombs onto U.S. warplanes selected for the missions, with the wave of attacks just about to begin, according to two people briefed on the operation.
Most of Trump's inner circle was either deeply skeptical of or outright opposed to joining the Saudi fight against the Houthis, particularly given existing strains on the U.S. military from the Iran war, a senior administration official said.
The Times described Trump's gyrations as reflecting a genuine quandary: the Houthis have largely steered clear of attacking U.S. ships, but have targeted Saudi Arabia directly, creating pressure on Trump from Riyadh.
Some U.S. military officials have argued Washington needs Saudi cooperation in the broader Iran war, and Saudi officials have shown willingness to use available leverage, in May, Saudi Arabia effectively halted a Trump administration plan to escort commercial oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz by denying the U.S. use of its airspace and air bases.
Any U.S. strikes could have coincided with a planned ground offensive by Yemeni government forces, though those forces have proven ineffective against the Houthis.
Gregory Johnsen, a nonresident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, was skeptical of the anti-Houthi coalition's cohesion, saying, "The anti-Houthi coalition is really a Frankenstein of all the leftover parts in Yemen that aren't the Houthis."
"The disparate Yemeni groups have vastly different and, in some cases, diametrically opposed goals for what they want in Yemen, so they spend more time fighting one another than they do the Houthis," he told NYT.
Current and former U.S. diplomats and commanders expressed doubt that a limited bombing campaign would compel the Houthis, who withstood nearly eight weeks of U.S. bombardment last year, to negotiate or abandon their hardline demands.
In spring 2025, the U.S. military struck the Houthis for more than 50 days in an effort to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) hitting more than 1,000 targets including radar systems, air defenses, ballistic missile sites, drone launch areas and a drone production hub near Sanaa.
The Houthis shot down several American drones and continued firing at naval vessels, including a U.S. aircraft carrier.
The campaign burned through roughly $1 billion in weapons and munitions in its first month alone, and two $67 million F/A-18 Super Hornets tasked with strikes accidentally fell off a U.S. aircraft carrier into the sea during the operation.
Less than two months into that campaign, Trump abruptly announced a ceasefire with the Houthis, saying the group "gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting at ships anymore, and we honor that."
The Houthis stopped firing at American ships, but one official warned that could change if the U.S. restarted an air campaign, adding that further disruptions to petroleum and gas transit through Bab al-Mandeb could follow given the already unstable Strait of Hormuz.
Since the ceasefire, the Houthis have reconstituted much of their military capability and are reportedly using artificial intelligence to develop new missile types.
Current and former officials said defeating the group would remain difficult even with U.S. military support for the Saudis.
The Houthis have fought Yemen's internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government since 2014, with violence slowing after a 2022 truce before the group waded back into the region's widening conflict this summer, declaring a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and capturing critical areas near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
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