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MAGA support for President Donald Trump's war against Iran has cratered over the past two months – with just 37 percent of his crumbling base now saying the conflict should continue even if it increases inflation, according to a new poll.
That's down from 50 percent since May, Politico said in a Wednesday report that came a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparred with Democrats during a fiery Senate hearing over the cost of the war.
A person close to the White House told Politico that it's "at a maximum level of frustration right now," with Trump "fully aware that the only way to the victory that he wants is completely politically impossible."
"The American people just will not support the kind of escalation it would take at this point,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We’ve got more dead Americans and a politically impossible situation.”
In a statement to The Independent, White House assistant press secretary Olivia Wales said, "What matters most to the American people is having a Commander in Chief who takes bold action to keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing."
"President Trump does not make these decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interests of the American people," Wales added.
The Politico poll, conducted over three days last week, also showed that an identical 37 percent of self-identified MAGA partisans said Trump should continue the war only if it doesn't raise costs for everyday Americans.
That conditional support has grown by eight percentage points since May, and the portion of MAGA true believers who want the war to end, regardless of costs in the U.S., is up 7 percentage points to nearly one in five, Politico said.
Non-MAGA Trump voters were even more opposed to the Iran war, with just 21 percent saying it's worth the impact on consumer prices and 28 percent saying it should end regardless of costs, according to Politico.
Significant majorities of people who backed Trump in 2024 also blame the war for higher gas prices, with that belief expressed by 57 percent of MAGA voters and 63 percent of non-MAGA Trump voters.
The average price for a gallon of gas reached $4.06 on Wednesday, up 17 cents in a week and 91 cents, or 29 percent, since the same time last year, according to AAA.
The annual inflation rate fell slightly last month, to 3.5 percent, as gas prices eased during a ceasefire in the war, but renewed fighting has economists expecting a rebound in July.
On Tuesday, Hegseth told the Senate appropriations committee that the estimated cost of the Iran war was now $37.5 billion, and he called on lawmakers to approve an "urgent, necessary injection" of $67 billion into the Pentagon's $1.5 trillion budget.
During a heated exchange, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan said Hegseth was "asking the American people for a blank check, because once again, the Trump administration’s efforts have been an utter and complete failure to win this war."
Hegseth shot back, "Shame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure and want to turn around and say you want to support the warfighters."
That prompted Peters to angrily respond, “You, sir, are the failure. Not the men and women who are on that front line."
"You don’t have a strategy. You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. When will you show leadership?" Peters added.
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