Michael Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 11, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Official State Department photo by Freddie Everett/Flickr)
During a Sunday, March 22 appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation," Mike Waltz — U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN) under the second Trump Administration — tried to downplay polls showing widespread opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump's military air strikes against Iran.
Host Margaret Brennan pointed out that a recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that only 40 percent of Americans approve of the U.S. taking military action against Iran. And Waltz responded, "I could quote a whole slew of polls that show, for example, self-described MAGA Republicans give the president 100 percent approval…. I can point here to an NBC poll: 90 percent of Republicans — broader Republicans — support Trump's effort to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities."
Brennan, however, pointed out that the figures Waltz was quoting showed what Trump's base is thinking — not what Americans in general are thinking.
MS NOW's Steve Benen, in an opinion column published the following day, argues that Waltz's comments on "Face the Nation" speak volumes about how he views non-MAGA voters.
"It was a candid peek into a curious perspective," Benen writes. "To hear the ambassador tell it, it doesn't much matter what Americans think; what matters is what Republicans think. Sure, national surveys show broad public opposition to the war that the president launched for reasons he's struggled to explain, but according to Waltz, voters outside the GOP base, in a rather literal sense, don't count."
The liberal "Rachel Maddow Show" producer quotes an October 4, 2025 column by the New York Times' Jamelle Bouie, who argued that in Trump's mind, "there is no whole people of the United States — there are only his people and his states."
"Waltz tacitly endorsed this argument to a national television audience, shrugging off the attitudes of a majority of Americans and focusing entirely on like-minded partisans," Benen laments. "That perspective might make Team Trump feel better in the short term, but it's worth reminding the White House that when the midterm elections arrive in the fall, MAGA Republicans won't be the only ones casting ballots."
