President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is historically unpopular, including with much of his own base — yet according to one scholar, the American people are trapped with it.
“Despite the limited number of U.S. casualties, President Trump’s massive attack on Iran is one of the most unpopular wars in modern American history,” wrote The Wall Street Journal’s William A. Galston on Tuesday. “From the beginning, more Americans opposed the war than supported it.”
Galston went on to quote RealClearPolling, which shows that on average 55 percent of the American public oppose the Iran war while only 41 percent support it. He added that this is not normal in the American experience.
“Historically, U.S. wars start with relatively high support, which erodes over time,” Galston explained. “The Vietnam War and the 2003 war in Iraq enjoyed majority or plurality support for more than two years after the major deployment of U.S. forces, according to Pew Research Center.”
Perhaps more important for Trump himself, Fox News survey in late March found that 26 percent of Americans who voted for him in 2024 disapprove of how he is handling the Iran war, along with 29 percent of Republicans. Three out of four respondents under 30 disapproved of Trump’s handling of the war, including 79 percent of independents, 79 percent of Hispanics and 57 percent of white men without college degrees. In theory, this could create political trouble for Trump, as he relied on swings in his direction from all of those groups to cobble together his political coalition.
Yet for structural reasons, Galston pointed out, Trump can pretty much wage the war in Iran however he wants, and without regard to the widespread controversy.
“Presidents now enjoy a structural advantage over Congress on matters of war and peace,” Galston wrote. “This wasn’t always the case. Nearly five million Americans served in uniform during World War I. After the war, the U.S. drew down the Army to a minimal level and kept it there for two decades. In 1939 the Army consisted of around 200,000 regular soldiers, fewer than Portugal had. The U.S. mobilized to fight World War II, then rapidly demobilized after it ended. The outbreak of the Cold War, soon followed by the Korean War, halted demobilization and led to the largest standing military in American history. Mr. Trump is only the latest in a series of presidents of both parties to use the military without first asking Congress for permission or immediate funding.”
Indeed, even though in the 1970s Congress passed the War Powers Resolution after the Vietnam War to prevent presidents from waging wars without legislative approval, nothing came of it.
“It requires the president to end any war Congress hasn’t authorized after 60 days,” Galston wrote. “(The president can request another 30 days to wind down hostilities and withdraw American forces.) But presidents have routinely ignored these provisions, and the judiciary hasn’t held them to account. Courts have said that lawmakers don’t have legal standing to sue, have told the legislative branch that it has other remedies at its disposal (such as cutting off money), or that such conflicts between the president and Congress present ‘political questions’ beyond the judiciary’s competence to adjudicate.”
Galston added, “Under the War Powers Resolution, Mr. Trump’s 60-day window closes this Friday, May 1. Most Democrats and a handful of Republicans would probably support a joint resolution to end hostilities against Iran. But even if this resolution passes (the previous five haven’t), Mr. Trump is almost certain to veto it, and the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed to override the veto are beyond reach. The same thing would likely happen if Congress passed a law forbidding the president from using appropriated funds to continue the war.”
As such, the bottom line is that “Congress would gain leverage over Mr. Trump only when the Defense Department runs out of discretionary funds and the president is forced to request a supplementary appropriation to continue the war. Until that happens (and no one knows for sure when it will), the president holds the cards.”
While many Republicans oppose the war, a majority still support it, even though Trump ran for president in 2024 promising he would not get America into wars and would indeed end all wars in the world.
“I thought you wanted him to end wars all over the world,” a former Trump supporter, ex-Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), declared in February. “You said you wanted him to end American entanglement in conflicts and wars around the world. America shouldn’t be involved in these wars, you said. That’s why you’re voting for Trump, you said.” Despite Trump’s actions against Denmark, Venezuela and Iran, however, they still back him.
He added, “And you don’t like when people call you a cult, Trump voters? What else are people to think when you voted for Trump to get us the hell out of wars around the world, and instead he gets us involved in wars around the world and starts new wars, and you still sing his praises and support him? What are we to think, MAGA, but that you are a cult?”
