CNN’s resident MAGA pundit got furious pushback while talking up President Trump’s “three-week situation” in Iran.
“The polling, by the way, among the Republican Party and among MAGA-friendly voters, is quite clear,” Scott Jennings, a former George W. Bush administration aide, told fellow panelists Thursday.
“They trust the president on this,” he went on. “How long it lasts and when we get out will make a difference on it, but right now, they do stand right behind the president.”
The latest Ipsos polls, published earlier in the day, found roughly 77 percent of Republican voters do approve of the president’s ongoing airstrikes against Iran.
But that support drops to just 14 percent for a large-scale invasion, with 63 percent insisting any such action would have to be limited to special forces.
Trump has denied he is planning to send troops into the country, even as reports suggest White House officials are actively discussing it, and as the president continues to flip-flop on the motives, goals, timeline and long-term outlook of the conflict.
Overall, more than 60 percent disapprove of the war, including one in five Trump voters. His approval ratings continue to hover at just 40 percent.
Host Abby Phillip was quick to bring Jennings up on the numbers. “MAGA is, like, 30 percent of the country,” she said. “The rest of the country does not agree.”
Political analyst Josh Rogin then swung in to put the stats in context. “This is the most unpopular war in American history, and for good reason,” he said.
Rogin’s comments reflect how the 29 percent overall approval for Trump’s conflict with Iran pales against 76 percent support for the Iraq war in 2008, 96 percent support for the Afghanistan war in 2001, and 97 percent support for war with Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Those figures suggest Trump’s new war in the Middle East likely represents the first time most U.S. voters have ever been opposed to a foreign military intervention from the outset.
“And the longer it goes on, the worse those numbers are going to look,” Rogin said. “There is no instance in history of a prolonged war benefitting any nation.”
Jennings then shot back to ask why Rogin, like most analysts, believes the war is going to be “prolonged,” at one point describing it as merely a “three-week situation.” Rogin replied: “That’s the story of pretty much every war ever.”
Jennings then made the utterly bizarre claim that “we haven’t had a war since World War II,” before quickly clarifying he meant, “officially,” that “we haven’t declared war” since 1941.
“I think the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan generations would take issue with that,” Rogin replied.
He then went on to outline how all available evidence suggests Trump’s already three-week old campaign against Iran, unlike the president’s lightning invasion of Venezuela earlier in January, is likely to end later, rather than sooner.
“The war is expanding, more countries are getting attacked, the energy crisis is growing, the economic crisis is growing, inflation is growing, extremism and attacks on the homeland are growing,” he said. “Everything is getting worse, every day.”
Jennings then cut Rogin off: “You’re not exactly a glass-half-full kinda guy, are you?”
It’s not the first time the MAGA pundit has offered some questionable takes on Trump’s moves on Iran.
He previously referred to the president’s decision to bomb nuclear sites in the country last June as a “de-escalation” of tensions with the Islamic regime.
