President Donald Trump reacts at the end of the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026. REUTERS KEVIN LAMARQUE
President Donald Trump and his allies have hailed the latest Iran deal as a major step towards a swift resolution to the war, but according to a new report from The Hill, he has already "pretty well trashed" his reputation among a key group of MAGA voters.
On Sunday, the U.S. and Iran signed a new deal after weeks of negotiations to suspend hostilities for 60 days, allowing more time to work out a final deal involving Iran's nuclear programs. While the complete text of the deal has not yet been made public, it is supposed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for oil shipments, and some reports suggest that it might also involve Iran getting $24 billion in frozen assets returned to them.
In a report published Tuesday morning, The Hill argued that, while the Iran war might be considered "brief" compared to other conflicts throughout U.S. history, its difficulties have still left a major impact on the Trump administration, which may have expected a much easier win based on its own recent success.
"Unable to get a quick and easy, Venezuela-style win, Trump found himself exactly in the vice he had sought to avoid in his first term — the same situation that had deterred his predecessors: back down or wage a costly and unpopular ground war in Iran in pursuit of outcomes far removed from the direct concerns of most American voters," the report explained.
It continued: "Perhaps the president’s more hawkish advisers unwisely assumed that once the war had begun, Trump’s pride and the desperate consequences of a loss to a third-rate power like Iran would force him to commit himself to the task and 'finish the job' rather than cut and run. But by maximizing the pain for American consumers and strangling world markets by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranians were jabbing Trump right in his solar plexus. So, unwilling or unable to rally domestic support for a larger war, Trump was forced to the negotiating table."
The report further argued that this economic pain caused by the Iran war, particularly the skyrocketing cost of oil, will cause the "brief" Iran conflict to live long in the memory of voters, who have already been crunched by high prices heading into the 2026 midterms. It also suggested that the decision to wage a costly war has damaged Trump's credibility with a key faction of MAGA voters.
"For those 'America First' devotees on the nationalist right, meanwhile, the premise of their alliance with MAGA — 'no wars for Israel' and all that — is pretty well trashed," The Hill concluded. "And the swing voters without strong opinions on foreign policy — though doubtless very relieved at the prospect of tumbling energy prices — will certainly wonder what the point of it all was."