President Donald Trump is finally beginning to face reality as his inner circle confronts the realization the Iran war, long thought to be his ticket back to popularity, is instead sinking the GOP even further ahead of the midterms, Greg Sargent and Kate Aronoff discussed as part of a recent podcast under The New Republic.
This comes as recent polling data confirms overwhelming unpopularity for the president's latest military adventure — an operation even some of his own supporters see as a betrayal of his campaign platform to end war and unnecessary foreign entanglements.
"So Time magazine reports that top White House advisor Susie Wiles fears that Trump is being fed a bill of goods about the popularity of the war," said Sargent. "She fears it’s really hurting GOP chances in the midterms. Trump’s pollster Tony Fabrizio has conducted studies showing its unpopularity and a small group of aides delivered this bad news to Trump. Kate, I think it’s hard for some pundits to accept that Trump’s war has made him even more unpopular. That’s not how things are supposed to work."
Aronoff concurred, saying that even though the Iraq war ended up unpopular under the Bush administration, those leading the war effort understood they had to sell it to the American people — and they tried to do so.
"They didn’t even have the dignity to haul out a Colin Powell–type figure to hold the little vial up before a panel and tell us a lie about weapons of mass destruction. They just kind of went in, and there was no lead-up, there was no sort of attempt even to cultivate some sort of popular support or even a real sense that Iran posed a threat," said Aronoff.
With that in mind, she added, "It boggles the mind that anyone would imagine that this would make Trump popular and do anything other than crater already pretty shaky public support."
Sargent expressed hope that Trump's realization of the scale of backlash could cause him to hunt for a resolution quickly, preventing Iran from turning into a yearslong quagmire.
"If Trump’s pollster is conducting surveys showing the war is very unpopular and Susie Wiles is telling Donald Trump, Sir, whoever’s telling you that this is going well is lying to you and this is going to kill us in the midterms, then there actually is something of a chance that Trump looks for a quicker way out," said Sargent, noting that this comes as Trump is cleaning house in his Cabinet and is, per one aide who spoke to Politico, "very angry" and ready to roll heads about his current predicament.
"He’s incapable of understanding that his power is not absolute," Sargent added. "So someone has to be at fault. Other than him, somebody. So we’re in this weird place where Trump is tanking in the polls in part because his belief in his own omnipotence was so delusional."