As the Iran war stretches into its second month, anger is mounting among some White House officials, according to a new report.
Discontent over the Middle East conflict is concentrated among younger, “more-right wing” staffers, an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter told Politico.
“They’re very frustrated,” the individual said. “They didn’t love the war to start with, and since it began, the constantly contradictory messaging from the president himself, is just brutal, brutal for staff to deal with and making their life really hard. He puts his people in a really tough position, especially people who are public-facing.”
The 79‑year‑old Republican president and other senior administration officials have offered up multiple justifications for the war, citing an imminent Iranian threat to the U.S. while also pointing to regime change as a factor. Trump has also sent mixed signals about when the conflict might end and whether or not he intends to deploy ground troops.
A White House spokesperson dismissed the Politico report, claiming that, by waging the war, the Republican president is acting on issues central to younger generations.
“What matters most to the American people – including young men – is having a Commander-in-Chief who takes decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing with the ongoing successful Operation Epic Fury,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the outlet.
Yet, polls show a striking generational divide among Trump voters over the military conflict, which has swept across the Middle East and raised alarm over potential worldwide economic disruption.
Just 49 percent of male Trump voters under the age of 35 believe the president has a plan in Iran, compared to more than 70 percent over 35, according to a Politico survey released earlier this month. At the same time, less than half of young men who back Trump said they’re willing to sacrifice the lives of American servicemembers in the campaign, while 66 percent of older MAGA men said the same.
This generational rift was recently highlighted by conservative podcaster Jack Posobiec.
“You see a big age split on this,” Posobiec told The Washington Post earlier this week, adding that he observed the fault line at Turning Point USA events on college campuses, at which students “were just not on board” with the war.
“Not in a sense that they’re anti-American military or pro-Iran or something, but just that they feel that if this war takes place, it’ll take precedence over their issues,” Posobiec said.
While Posobiec has expressed mixed feelings about the war, a number of other prominent right-wing media personalities have explicitly come out against it. Tucker Carlson, who has a large following of young men, has decried the military offensive as “absolutely disgusting and evil,” while Megyn Kelly has compared it to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Since the war was launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, thousands of targets have been struck inside Iran. Tehran has responded by lobbing retaliatory strikes on numerous nearby nations, including Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. To date, more than 3,300 Iranians have died, rights group HRANA reported this week, and 13 U.S. servicemembers have been killed, the Pentagon has said.
Trump has given no clear timeline for when the conflict will end, but recent developments indicate the U.S. may be preparing to devote more resources to the region.
On Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced that about 3,500 Marines and sailors had arrived in the Middle East, bolstering the roughly 50,000 troops already stationed there. Reports also suggest the Pentagon plans to dispatch at least 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division.
Multiple polls show that Americans remain broadly opposed to the conflict. According to a Pew Research Center survey published this week, 59 percent of Americans believe the U.S. made the wrong decision by using military force in Iran, while 38 percent said it made the right decision.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
