When Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to the lectern of the White House press briefing room on Tuesday, he seemed to revel in serving as the administration’s chief spokesman of the day.
He smiled, joked and jabbed gently at reporters, calling on them by the color of their blazers. He took on a range of questions on topics from rising gas prices to Cuba to his upcoming visit with the pope. He invoked the lyrics of ’90s hip-hop songs to describe U.S. adversaries.
And when it came to the war in Iran, or Operation Epic Fury as President Trump branded it in February when the United States joined Israel in striking the country, Mr. Rubio confidently described the state of play in a conflict whose status has been increasingly muddy.
“The operation is over,” Mr. Rubio declared. “Epic Fury is — as the president notified Congress — we’re done with that stage of it. We’re now on to this Project Freedom.”
The current American effort in the Strait of Hormuz, he explained, was focused on providing humanitarian support for civilian crews stranded on ships. He spoke emphatically about the desire for peace with Iran and liberation for its people, indicating that the conflict was moving into a new phase.
But as most things go in Mr. Trump’s orbit, what appeared definitive was fleeting.
Just three hours later, the president announced that Project Freedom, the day-old mission he announced on Sunday to help guide ships out of the strait, would be paused “for a short period of time.”
Then on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump suggested in a social media post that the war was not, in fact, over. Only if “Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to,” he wrote, the “legendary Epic Fury will be at an end.”
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” Mr. Trump added.
It was the administration’s latest U-turn in what has been a stream of chaotic and confusing messages about the U.S. posture and its objectives in the war.
The president’s constant turns have roiled the markets, tested the patience of Republican lawmakers and bewildered U.S. allies trying to navigate the fallout of the conflict.
His latest rhetorical shift hit closer to home, underscoring how treacherous it is to speak for a president who cultivates a bombastic and erratic style, one that Mr. Trump insists keeps his adversaries off balance.
In this case, however, he appeared to be throwing off balance his own secretary of state, who also serves as the president’s national security adviser.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Trump’s vacillations reflected the reality of the fast-moving situation on the ground, and his desire to keep all options open to ensure that Iran’s “nuclear dreams are eliminated for good.”
“Right now, negotiations continue, which move quickly by nature,” Ms. Kelly said. “This president is the most transparent and accessible in history, and no other administration has done more to keep the press and the public apprised of these developments in real time.”
Throughout the war, Mr. Trump’s positions have changed by the sentence. He has described the conflict as, alternately, a “war,” an “excursion” and, most recently again on Wednesday, a “skirmish.” He has gone from saying that the United States had already “won” the war, to threatening to wipe out Iran’s civilization if its government did not meet more demands. He has said that Iran has no leaders left, but that he is in communication with some who are “desperate” for a deal. He threatened that bombings would continue, only to extend a cease-fire at the last minute.
Mr. Rubio sought on Tuesday to reinforce the idea that the president would not back down, sometimes with humor.
While Mr. Trump has threatened that the United States will continue “bombing our little hearts out” if Iran does not agree to a deal, Mr. Rubio encouraged its leaders to “check themselves before they wreck themselves in the direction that they’re going,” referring to Ice Cube’s 1992 song “Check Yo Self.”
Still, he asserted that the United States “was not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace.”
Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the State Department, said in a statement that Mr. Rubio’s news conference reflected the transparency of the administration.
“Part of keeping the American people informed means there are updates as the situation changes in real-time,” Mr. Pigott said. “President Trump’s objectives have been clear from the beginning, and the world is safer because of the decisive outcomes of Operation Epic Fury.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump was back to sounding optimistic, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the United States had “very good talks” with Iran in the previous 24 hours. He suggested that the tension earlier in the week, when Iran fired at ships in the strait, had subsided.
“A few days ago,” he noted, “is a long time ago in the world of war.”
