Skyrocketing gas prices and no end in sight to the stand off in the Hormuz Strait have made President Donald Trump’s war on Iran hugely unpopular with voters of all stripes.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten outlined Trump’s voter problem, pointing out that even 55 percent of Republican voters blame high gas prices on the president.
“He is getting blamed to an historic degree,” Enten said.
Trump, 79, continues to deny that the war in Iran is an unpopular issue. Asked about gas prices last week, which are now at almost $4.40 a gallon, Trump dismissed concerns, saying once the war is over they will fall.
But voters have little patience for the war, or the way it is impacting gas prices.
Asked if the war was worth the higher gas prices, just 34 percent of voters said yes.
Enten cited a new CNBC poll that was published Thursday, which found that nearly half of voters feel less safe because of the war, and 64 percent said the war was not “worth it.”
“You’re hearing one thing from Republicans, but the American people, we see it over and over again in the numbers, say something completely different…Sixty-one percent overall say that in fact, it was a mistake," Enten told Kaitlan Collins.
Gas prices have risen 33 cents in the past week, with the average price climbing almost 50 percent since the start of the war. On Friday, a gallon of gas hit $4.39, up from $2.98 in February.
“As soon as the war’s over [gas prices] will drop like a rock,” Trump claimed on Thursday.
But there’s no end in sight for the conflict, with face-to-face negotiations stalled, and Trump demanding Iran surrender all nuclear materials to the United States, something the country has to this point refused.
“Is the Iran war worth higher gas prices? Just 34 percent of Americans say yes. About two in three, 64 percent, say no, no, no, nein, nein, nein,” Enten said.
“They do not like this one iota. So when they hear Republicans saying what they’re saying about the war being worth it in terms of higher gas prices, they say, ‘What are you, out to lunch?’”
He pointed to a second poll, published Friday, that found 61 percent of voters think the war was a mistake.
“I see these numbers, and I say to myself my god, these are bad,” he said.
The nosedive has been swift, Enten said, with the polls plummeting for Trump in just two months.
He said in comparison to public support for prior wars, the numbers are stunning. It took 51 months for 60 percent of Americans to consider the war in Iraq a mistake, and 74 months for the Vietnam war.
In a separate segment, Enten said polls showed 77 percent of Americans blamed Trump for gas prices, more than had ever blamed Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or George W. Bush.
