{"id":5835,"date":"2026-07-31T20:43:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5835"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:43:45","slug":"trump-is-facing-a-major-iran-war-hurdle-this-time-on-the-homefront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5835","title":{"rendered":"Trump is facing a major Iran war hurdle \u2014 this time on the homefront"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Iran war that was supposed to be brief, and then was supposed to be over, is imposing an increasing price on Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve seen a second term of a Republican administration go this way before.<\/p>\n

There are distinct echoes of George W. Bush\u2019s Iraq war \u2014 the conflict that Trump has long excoriated \u2014 in the president\u2019s predicament.<\/p>\n

Now, the Iran war is different than Iraq: There is no ground invasion, no regime change, no occupation, no counter-insurgency.<\/p>\n

The casualties aren\u2019t close to the same scale, and Trump has been fighting Iran for months, whereas George W. Bush was embroiled in Iraq for years (and so were his successors).<\/p>\n

Yet the political trajectory looks similar.<\/p>\n

Then, as now, an unpopular conflict is putting downward pressure on a Republican president\u2019s approval rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mainstream pollsters routinely have Trump\u2019s approval rating below 40%, and some put it below 35%; Fox News has him at 39%, while CNN (34%) and AP (33%) are lower.<\/p>\n

At this juncture of Bush\u2019s second term, his average approval rating was a roughly comparable 38%, although he had further to fall as the war continued and the financial crisis hit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the Iran war is not exacting nearly the same price in blood and treasure as the Iraq war, it is inflicting a direct economic cost on Americans that wasn\u2019t present during the Iraq war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was often said of violent clashes in the streets of the United States in the 1960s, \u201cThe Vietnam war has come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, the Iran war came home the first time the average price per gallon of gasoline went above $4.<\/p>\n

Trump would have much more leeway to engage in a protracted operation to bring Iran to heel if the public could, in effect, forget about the war for a while \u2014 but there\u2019s a reminder every day of what\u2019s happening in the Strait of Hormuz on gas signs across America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the CNN poll, 28% approve Trump\u2019s handling of Iran, while 25% approve his handling of inflation and 21% of gas prices.<\/p>\n

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These issues are related.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump wants his presidency to matter.<\/p>\n

So, rather than being content with doing whatever he could at the margins to lower prices, he went for big, legacy-defining initiatives \u2014 tariffs and the Iran war \u2014 that raised<\/em> prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In so doing, he forfeited his signature issue of economic stewardship: In the latest Fox News poll, 33% approve of his handling of the economy and 67% disapprove.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the war in Iran:<\/h2>\n