The share of MAGA voters who think the war is worth the economic cost has fallen to roughly over a third, down from 50 percent in May, the POLITICO Poll found.
07/22/2026 05:55 AM EDT
Half of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base thought the Iran war was worth its economic costs in May. Now, just a little more than a third do.
That precipitous, 13-point drop in just two months, according to a new POLITICO Poll, reveals how the president’s most die-hard supporters are starting to agree with the majority of Americans who have long opposed the U.S.’ involvement in the war.
Additionally, 37 percent of self-identified MAGA Trump voters say the U.S. should continue its involvement only if it doesn’t increase costs, up from 29 percent who said the same in May, according to the survey, conducted by independent polling firm Public First. Nearly 1 in 5 MAGA voters believe that the U.S. should end its war in Iran, regardless of the costs.
That flagging support among the president’s most loyal supporters is the clearest sign that Americans’ patience is wearing thin as the economy continues to dominate as voters’ top concern heading into a critical midterm cycle.
But Trump on Monday gave little indication that he was looking for a quick end to the war. The U.S. military has pounded Iran for the last two weeks, and speaking to reporters on Tuesday the president claimed that Iranian officials “want to desperately meet” but that “until they are ready to meet in a meaningful way we have no interest in even talking.”
The White House is “at a maximum level of frustration right now, and I was told by very senior people that the president is now 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,” said one person close to the White House, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. “We’ve got more dead Americans and a politically impossible situation.”
This article is part of an ongoing project from POLITICO and Public First, an independent polling company headquartered in London, to measure public opinion across a broad range of policy areas.
You can find new surveys and analysis each month at politico.com/poll.
Have questions or comments? Ideas for future surveys? Email us at poll@politico.com.
This souring of the president’s base comes amid renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, which have been conducting tit-for-tat strikes after the president earlier this month declared a tentative peace agreement between the two countries “over.” Two U.S. servicemembers were killed in Jordan this weekend and gas prices have climbed above $4 per gallon, underscoring the war’s impact at home.
The mood among White House staff and their outside allies is grim as the president grapples with finding a path out of an unpopular and expensive war three months from a midterm election expected to turn on cost of living issues.
The president was expected to spend the year on a victory tour on affordability issues, touting his popular tax cuts, Trump accounts for newborns and lower drug prices. Instead, a domestic travel schedule has been pocked by visits to Dover Air Force Base to oversee the dignified transfer of the remains of more than a dozen dead soldiers, and he has during his campaign-style rallies been forced to time and again argue to the American people that the price of war — most salient to higher prices at the pump — was worth ending Iran’s nuclear program.