U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Dover Air Force Base to attend the dignified transfer of U.S. Army service members killed in Jordan and Iraq, amid the Iran war, in Dover, Delaware, U.S., July 22, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Republican candidates are quietly getting advice from President Donald Trump's own circle ahead of November's midterms to break with the administration and stop talking about the Iran war the way he does, according to a report.
MS NOW White House correspondent Jake Traylor reported the shift Sunday on "Alex Witt Reports," saying strategists close to the president are telling incumbents and challengers alike to create daylight between their message and Trump's. The president has insisted the nearly five-month conflict is going well, even as it drags on and he weighs whether ending it outright could blunt the political damage to his party.
"They're encouraged to actually put some distance and space between the way Trump talks about the war and the way they do," Traylor said, in remarks flagged by The Daily Beast. He pointed to consistently negative polling and the sense that Republicans lack a winning strategy on the war heading into the vote.
A CBS News/YouGov survey taken July 22-24 found most Americans believe the conflict has been harder than the administration expected, and most say Trump makes the war sound better than it is. Approval of the military action stays underwater.
With the midterms roughly 100 days out, the war has collided with rising gas prices and an economy that has become the number Republicans fear most.
Fighting has paused in the region, asTrump halted strikes Friday after the top U.S. commander in the Middle East advised that the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz had reached the limits of its effectiveness. Some House Republicans have already broken ranks with the president to rein in the war.
One GOP strategist warned that a race that becomes a referendum on Iran is doomed to fail.