US staring down a 'serious long-term consequence' of Trump's 'discretionary' war: expert

The U.S. is staring down a potentially "serious long-term consequence" as a result of President Donald Trump's "discretionary" war in Iran, according to one expert.

Margaret Donovan, a former Army JAG lawyer, discussed the impacts of Trump's war in Iran on CNN's "NewsNight" with Abby Phillip on Wednesday. She noted that the war is having an impact both at home, due to the sharp rise in energy prices, and abroad, with U.S. allies in the region, who have expended a lot of their missile defense systems.

Donovan added that Trump's recent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could make matters worse the longer it goes on.

"We have to see this long term," Donovan said. "I also want to say that we should never underestimate our adversary here and the pain that they could still inflict. One thing that we should take stock of is the rapidly depleting stockpiles of air defense systems of the Gulf states."

"There are real vulnerabilities in the region with people from countries that we should be allied with," she added.

"So the ceasefire is good. We should sit and take stock of where we are. But there is a serious long-term consequence for defense production that we can't discount. When we look at sort of the larger, um, second and third order effects of this really discretionary war," she continued.