An operation that Donald Trump said could take Iran out “in one night” had turned into a six-week regional war that had the US president increasingly frustrated, as evidenced by his unhinged social media posts. In an expletive-ridden rant on Sunday, he warned that the US would take out all of Iran’s bridges and power plants if it didn’t open up the Hormuz Strait by Tuesday night, 8pm Eastern time. A two-week ceasefire was announced at the 11th hour, after regional and international stakeholders worked tirelessly to secure it. The war had plunged the entire region, including the Gulf, into turmoil, and its economic effects were already being felt across the world.
At home, the war was tanking Trump's popularity—even among his support base. Instead of the “no endless wars” they were promised, Americans were thrown into a disastrous war and were feeling the economic pinch at the gas pump.
Polls showed that 6 out of 10 Americans disapproved of the job Trump was doing, with some surveys showing his disapproval rating edging closer to two-thirds of Americans during the recent weeks of war. This put his popularity significantly lower than it was in his first term and lower than that of his three predecessors—Biden, Obama, and George W. Bush—in their first terms.
Before the war, Trump’s political support was already declining due to negative perceptions of his handling of the economy and inflation. But in a recent poll, 56% of Americans said the Iran war will have a mostly negative impact on their personal financial situation, with another 25% unsure. Meanwhile, 67% of Americans said that Trump lacks a clear plan for handling the situation in Iran—worrisome numbers for any wartime president.
To his credit, Trump seemed to be acutely aware of the war’s unpopularity. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Monday, he said, although he would like to “take the oil" from Iran, "unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home."
Divisive issue
This even created divisions within Trump’s own Republican party, with divergent voices over Iran on display at the Conservative Political Action Conference late last month, with younger conservatives more sceptical about the war than their older counterparts.
Case in point: prominent Conservative podcast host Tucker Carlson—who lobbied the president since last year not to go to war with Iran—recently argued that the war is showing the “end of American Empire” and that Trump’s call for allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz proved that the US could no longer function as the world’s policeman.
