President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement on May 6 of a ceasefire deal with Yemen’s Houthis—in which the militant group pledged not to target American ships in the Red Sea in return for a US commitment not to attack them—has implications beyond the cessation of such violence. Trump apparently came to see his two-month, ramped up bombing campaign against the Houthis as prohibitively expensive as well as possibly bogging down the United States in another Middle Eastern conflict. That the more isolationist wing within Trump’s inner circle is happy with the deal, and that Trump noted that the United States was now “out” of the Yemen conflict, suggest that he has no appetite to help end Yemen’s long civil war, a conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and caused a humanitarian disaster. Also notable is that Trump did not insist that the deal include a Houthi agreement to stop attacking Israel, as the group has been doing since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. This suggests that Trump is losing patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza and will, at times, pursue what he sees as US interests without consulting Israel.
A Tough, Ideological Movement
The Houthis, who refer to their movement as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God) and who follow the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam, had long opposed Yemen’s central government. In September 2014, they mounted a military campaign from their main base in the far north and took over the capital city of Sanaa and surrounding areas; a few months later the sitting Yemeni government leaders fled south to the city of Aden. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia organized a coalition of Sunni Muslim Arab states to defeat the Houthis, whom they saw as Iranian proxies, and to swiftly restore the ousted, internationally recognized Yemeni government to power. But things did not turn out as planned. Only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) played significant roles in the Arab military coalition—the other members provided minimal to no help—and the Houthis proved to be very tough fighters. The conflict became a protracted civil war, with tens of thousands of civilians dying directly from the fighting and many more from malnutrition and disease. Yemeni children have been especially harmed.
The Houthis’ ideology portrays Israel, the United States, and its Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia as part of a nefarious “imperialist” cabal that must be confronted. As soon as Israel began its post-October 7 war on Gaza, the Houthis, in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, began to launch missiles and drones against Israeli targets and to attack commercial ships in the Red Sea that purportedly were headed to Israel’s port of Eilat or linked to Israel in some other way. The Houthis expanded their targets to commercial ships from various countries, as well as US Navy ships. The Houthis pledged to continue such attacks until Israel ended its war on Gaza.
Iran may be happy that the Houthis are putting pressure on Israel, but whether it is calling is unknown.
While the Houthis have accepted rockets, drones, and other arms from Tehran, the extent of Iranian involvement in the groups’ Red Sea attacks is a subject of debate. Iran may be happy that the Houthis are putting pressure on Israel, but whether it is calling the shots, so to speak, is unknown. As an ideological movement, the Houthis are quite capable of undertaking this campaign on their own volition.
Although few Houthi missiles and drones have actually landed in Israel (the bulk have been intercepted by Israel’s defenses such as the Arrow system), the targeting of commercial vessels in the Red Sea has hurt the world economy. Many companies that normally ship goods through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal have redirected their cargos through the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. This has not only made shipping costs higher because of added time and fuel but also has led to a sharp drop in Suez Canal tolls for Egypt, which has been in tough economic times even before the Houthi attacks.
The US Military Reaction…
Former President Joe Biden, who had offered the Houthis an olive branch when he first came to office by delisting them as a foreign terrorist organization and who tried to work with the United Nations to end the Yemeni civil war, was soon disappointed by the Houthis’ prolongation of the conflict. In response to the Red Sea attacks, in early 2024 Biden ordered US air strikes (sometimes aided by the United Kingdom) on Houthi military targets. But when asked by a reporter whether the US strikes were working to stop the Houthis, Biden flatly said “no,” adding that they would nevertheless continue.
After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire collapsed in March 2025, Trump, wishing to portray his predecessor as weak, ramped up the US military campaign against the Houthis. In less than two months, the US military undertook more than 1,100 attacks on Houthi positions and assets, more than under Biden, with the Trump administration broadening the strikes to target the group’s leaders.
…And Trump’s Re-Assessment
Before long, however, Trump came to see his intensive bombing campaign in Yemen as costly and debilitating to US military readiness. According to investigative reporting from the New York Times, Trump demanded an assessment of the US effort just 31 days after it began. The assessment found that the Houthis had shot down several expensive US Reaper drones and had continued to fire on US naval assets in the Red Sea despite incessant US strikes. It also revealed that the US weapons and munitions required were costing upwards of $1 billion a month. This expense was on top of the loss of two US Hornet jets (worth $67 million each) that fell into the Red Sea when trying to avoid Houthi fire.
Trump’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs believed that an ongoing campaign would sap US military resources.
Although US CENTCOM commander General Michael Kurilla reportedly wanted to continue a vigorous military campaign, Trump’s new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, reportedly believed that an ongoing campaign would sap US military resources from the Indo-Pacific region. According to the New York Times, Trump’s civilian advisors supported the CENTCOM plan but “misjudged their boss’s tolerance for military conflict in the region.”
Thus, when Omani officials approached the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff in early May with a proposal to end the US conflict with the Houthis, he immediately informed the White House and Trump signed off on a deal. Trump ordered CENTCOM on May 5 to pause offensive operations in Yemen, and he announced the ceasefire deal the next day.
Although the US president said in front of the cameras that the Houthis had “capitulated” and “did not want to fight anymore,” he added that “we honor their commitment and their word [to adhere to the ceasefire].” For their part, the Houthis declared victory, posting on social media, “Yemen defeats America.” While the group did not defeat America, it was clear that it was Trump who wanted to end hostilities, even though the Houthis had suffered some military losses.
Israelis Miffed by Ceasefire Deal
The ceasefire deal was reached without securing the Houthis’ agreement to stop attacking Israel, and even apparently without the White House first consulting its leaders. Although Trump has given Israel all of the military armaments it wants, including some bombs that were held up by Biden, the Houthi deal was a surprise to Netanyahu, indicating the strains in his relations with Trump. Former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer noted that “Trump is probably annoyed that Netanyahu restarted the war in Gaza and is threatening further escalation. This runs counter to Trump’s boast that he would bring the war to an end immediately upon taking office.”
The ceasefire deal was reached without securing the Houthis’ agreement to stop attacking Israel.
Trump also may have calculated that since he has done so many political favors for Netanyahu—who called the US president the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House—there would be no downside for him if he distanced himself from the Israeli prime minister. (Trump’s hope to reach a US-Iran nuclear deal, something that Netanyahu opposes, is another sign of strained ties between the two.) Shortly before Trump announced the US-Houthi ceasefire deal, a Houthi rocket landed near Ben Gurion airport, somehow evading Israel’s air defense systems. The attack prompted international airlines to temporarily suspend flights to Israel and led Netanyahu to launch airstrikes against the group (Israel has attacked the Houthis several times since October 7, 2023). Such tit-for-tat strikes likely will continue. As long as Trump believes that Netanyahu is not following his lead to end the Gaza war, there may be little incentive for the US president to revisit the ceasefire deal with the Houthis to force them not to attack Israel.
Short US Campaign Against Houthis Indicative of Trump’s Approach
Political scientists have had a difficult time characterizing Trump’s national security policy, as it seems to be a combination of isolationism with occasional bursts of military strikes and transactional foreign policy that prioritizes commercial deals. In his recent speech in Riyadh, Trump alluded to his military campaign against the Houthis and the ceasefire deal by saying that, because of “52 days of thunder and lightning like they’ve never seen before,” the Houthis had agreed to stop attacking commercial ships “or anything American.” Trump added, “This was a swift, ferocious, decisive and extremely successful use of military force…we hit them hard. We got what we came for, and then we got out.” The last phrase is noteworthy, as it expresses Trump’s desire not to get bogged down in a protracted war, especially in the Middle East. In his speech Trump criticized past US administrations for foolishly trying to change countries in the region at the cost of many lives and much treasure.
A Dangerous Hands-Off Approach to the Yemeni Civil War
Members of the more isolationist wing of Trump’s team, such as Vice President JD Vance, reportedly were happy with the Houthi deal. There is a danger that this stance will lead the Trump administration to altogether avoid trying to help resolve the Yemen conflict, which remains one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent decades. Vance is on record saying that if the Houthis stop shooting in the Red Sea, they can “go back to doing whatever it was they were doing before attacking civilian vessels.” As both the Houthis and the internationally-recognized Yemeni government have been accused of committing human rights abuses, the vice president’s comment is far from reassuring to the long-suffering Yemeni people. This stance, along with Trump’s severe cutbacks in US foreign assistance including for Yemeni civilians, indicates a US retreat from helping those in desperate need.
On May 14, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council that the US-Houthi deal provides an opportunity to revitalize the Yemeni peace process. Underscoring that the status quo in Yemen is untenable, Grundberg noted that not only is there continued mistrust among the parties but that the Yemeni economy is on the verge of collapse. UN humanitarian officials stated in 2024 that more than 2.7 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished; conditions have likely worsened since then.
The Trump administration should heed Grundberg’s call and use its close ties to the Omanis, who maintain relations with both the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthis, to work with the UN to bring about peace. The recent comments by Trump and Vance suggest that a robust US role in ending the civil war is, sadly, not a priority. This situation is indeed an example of a self-serving and selfish “America First” policy.
The views expressed in this publication are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab Center Washington DC, its staff, or its Board of Directors.
Featured image credit: Social Media/Ansar Allah
