A man from Iowa who said he lived in a small rural town, population 20,000, called into CSPAN’s Washington journal on Tuesday and had some remarkable observations to share. He noted that a lot of the Trump signs were gone and several of the local and vocal Trump voters in the community had gone noticeably quiet. One man was flying his Trump flag at half-mast.
This author has heard of similar phenomenon in ruby red places, more recently in the Keystone State, where there is an often-cited “Trump: A National Embarrassment” billboard as you cross a town called Bedford a hundred miles outside of Pittsburgh along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Bedford County went 84% for Trump in 2024.
While clearly this is anecdotal, the polling doesn’t lie. Trump is losing support with the very people who brought him into the White House, twice. One could point to myriad missteps and perceived betrayals over the last year. However, the war in Iran, launched for and with Israel seven months ago, has truly broken a covenant with voters who in many cases voted for him twice to do the opposite. Another forever Middle East war wasn’t on the bingo card.
So Trump starts a conflict with Iran that has conflagrated across the Persian Gulf and has allowed Israel to push its forces into Lebanon and at the cost of the U.S. economy. Oil shortages translate into spiking consumer gas, diesel, and heating oil prices. This not only impacts Americans who rely on driving, but shipping costs are escalating for all goods including groceries and supplies for home and car repairs, clothing, everyday household stuff. Then there are the shortages in fertilizer components for farmers, adding to increasing food costs down the road. Add that to high interest rates affecting loans and mortgages, and there is a lot of uncertainty out there.
As Jim Antle said in Responsible Statecraft on Tuesday, “The economic costs of the war are undeniable even to its remaining supporters, and are being inflicted on an electorate that has been angry about the high cost of living for at least five years.”
Not to mention the military and their families. As we saw with the sailors on the USS Lincoln, Trump is willing to sacrifice their health, morale, and the readiness of the US Navy by insisting on a protracted Naval blockade while stockpile depletions continue and we no longer have the luxury of easy restocking and refueling our ships from nearby Gulf bases because so many facilities had been made inoperable by Iranian attacks.
This is why so many Americans are saying this is ”not our war.” They never wanted it and the Congress never approved it. Many are going to the polls Nov. 2 with a mind for ending it but make no mistake, it will take voices from across the political spectrum to send the signal to the White House and Congress after the midterms. That’s why the Quincy Institute has joined up with former Trump administration intelligence official Joe Kent to host two events on a new “Not Our War Tour” to speak directly to disaffected Americans about the cost and stakes of not ending the conflict soon.
