The Iran war divides younger and older conservatives, and there is increasing pressure on Trump to find an exit ramp.

 

 One month in, what do American conservatives make of the war in Iran? (Image: Getty Images)

According to polls, the vast majority of Americans have been opposed to the US-Israeli military campaign in Iran since its inception. Republicans, however, have largely stuck by their president as the war approaches the end of its fourth week.

 However, this may be changing. Some loyal members of the party raised concerns at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas regarding the reasons why the United States started this war, how Donald Trump intends to end it, and whether the effort has been worth the costs. "I just wish that there was more transparency on why we're doing what we're doing, that way you could send your loved one overseas and be OK with that," said Samantha Cassell.  "Because it's the cost of living, oil, and gas, the prices are only going to keep going up," "I hope it comes to an end quickly." Joe Bolick, Cassell's friend, and Cassell, who lives in Dallas, were going to their first CPAC conference. Additionally, he was uncertain about the war. "I don't see an endgame yet," he said.  "What exactly are we attempting to accomplish? Is it true that the regime is changing? How does that appear? Who will take their place? I think we kind of got ourselves stuck."

 Since Trump's transition from a libertarian-leaning gathering to one dominated by Make America Great Again adherents, CPAC has become a Trump-friendly venue. This year, the conservative conference moved to a sprawling hotel complex near Dallas, Texas, from its previous location just outside of Washington, DC.

This year's conference had a similar atmosphere to previous ones. Days of panels and speakers were offered in a squalid main auditorium. The exhibit hall on the floor below featured a lot of conservative kitsch, including a bus with the president's face on it, Trump 2028 T-shirts, and glasses with "bulletproof" written on them and a fake bullet embedded in their sides to commemorate the attempted assassination of Trump in 2024.

Some things were different, however.

 The war in Iran was a common topic of conversation even though it was more than 1,000 miles away from Washington, DC. The conflict is causing a generational divide within conservative ranks, according to the BBC's interviews with dozens of individuals. Shashank Yalamanchi, a first-year law student, and Toby Blair, a 19-year-old college student at the University of South Florida, traveled to Dallas for CPAC. Both stated that they thought the war with Iran was best for the United States. "I don't like that it's become America's job to find bad people and get rid of them," he said.  "Especially when you have so many people at home that can't afford basic things like groceries and gas."

 According to Yalamanchi, many young conservatives backed Trump because he said he wouldn't get involved in wars overseas and was a realist rather than an interventionist in foreign policy. Two US Marine amphibious units are currently deploying to the Gulf.  A US paratrooper division's components are also reportedly on their way. A request for $200 billion in war funding is also being considered by the Pentagon. The Iranian conflict may not be over soon, despite the president's assurances, as a result of all of this.

He stated, "We have a lot of domestic issues that need to be handled, and when we spend our time and effort defending and fighting a foreign war, we have less time and effort to spend changing things here at home."

Older people made up the "Trump Tribe of Texas," all of whom wore gold sequined jackets and necklaces with the president's name written on them. Michael Manuel-Reaud, its founder, was attending his sixth CPAC when he stated that Iran posed a threat that needed to be addressed. "Who can say no to a nuclear bombing of the United States if there is a threat to do so?" He inquired. "Trump cannot simply resign. He won't stop until he gets everything done. The remainder of the tribe concurred. Penny Crosby stated, "I trust Trump to know what he's doing." "I simply believe that whatever Trump believes needs to occur must occur in order to complete the job. Blake Zummo stated, "He's protecting us, protecting the American people." "They are targeting us." On Thursday, a vociferous group of Iranian-Americans who have been boisterously celebrating the US military operation largely drowned out the conference attendees, despite the fact that attendees here were divided on the war.

During a morning panel featuring two women who had been injured during anti-regime protests in Iran, they chanted "Thank you Trump." They filled the hallways with shouts of "regime change for Iran" while holding photographs of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, who was deposed following the nation's 1979 Islamic revolution.

 The activists gathered outside the conference center in the afternoon and waved Iranian lion-and-sun flags from the Shah's reign. Nima Poursohi said, "It's just so refreshing to see... the people of Iran finally having a shot at liberation after 47 years of oppression and tyranny under the Islamic regime." She was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat with "Persian Excursion" embroidered on the side and a "Persians for Trump" T-shirt. She stated, "No other president dealt with Iran or even had the courage to take a step forward like President Trump has." Matt Schlapp, the event's organizer, was not surprised by Iranian-Americans' outpouring of emotion at CPAC. According to what he told the BBC, "if you were deprived of freedom for a generation, you probably want to be pretty excited to get it back." But he said there was "no guarantee" that would happen.

 Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union, has been running CPAC for 12 years.  And he noted that – Iranian activists aside – there was a debate over where the war goes from here.

 "Conservatives trust President Trump," he said.  They give him a lot of room to maneuver. However, there is some uncertainty regarding the course of this.

This was a concern that went beyond the conference's regular attendees. It also spread to the main stage of the conference. Matt Gaetz, a former Congressman, issued a warning on Thursday afternoon, stating that a ground invasion of Iran would leave the United States "poorer and less safe" given the thousands of new US soldiers currently stationed in the Middle East. "It will mean higher gas prices higher food prices," he said, "and I'm not sure we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create."

Former Congressman Matt Gaetz warned that a ground invasion of Iran would make the US "poorer and less safe" (Image: Getty Images)

The next day, on a panel that was titled "Breaking Stuff and Killing Bad Guys: The Case for Western Military Dominance", Erik Prince, founder of the military contractor Blackwater, painted a dark picture about the future of the war and dismissed the administration's "optimism" about a rapid, peaceful end to the fighting.

 "We face an extremely difficult challenge," he said.  Iran does not observe a day of independence because the country has not been conquered since Alexander the Great's time. When former Navy Seal Jason Redman, also on the panel, said that America had to finish the job in Iran, some in the crowd cheered and chanted "USA".

 At the end of the panel, Prince offered a word of caution.

"I agree, USA all the way," be said, "but all the people who are cheering, make sure you put skin in the game."

 That elicited a round of applause from others in the crowd.

 Pew Research's most recent polls reveal some of these cracks in Trump's formerly rock-solid political base. While 79% of Republicans approve of how the president is handling the war, only 49% strongly approve.  Those who "lean" Republican see that number drop to 22%. Pew's findings also reveal the age gap. Only 49% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 agree with Trump's war tactics, despite the fact that 84% of Republicans support it. Trump's longtime pollster, Jim McLaughlin, stated that surveys exaggerate the differences among conservatives and that any friction within Trump's movement is brief. "It will only be a matter of time before we return to $2 gas. "This won't take too long or take too long to finish," he said. "You're going to see prices go down again significantly once that's over." "We're having a little bit of a blip here with the Iran military operation."

Time will tell, but for the moment it may be setting off alarms for Trump and Republicans looking ahead to November's crucial midterm congressional elections.

 Younger voters were a significant component of the coalition that returned Trump to the White House in 2024. Even though Republicans' overall support is still high, it could be problematic if it is sluggish and results in less enthusiasm and participation in upcoming congressional campaigns. Trump recently stated that the United States' war with Iran is "winding down." He said on Friday night that he thought his base would support him because they don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons and liked that the United States protected "certain allies," like Israel and the Arab Gulf states. But wars have a way of evolving in unexpected ways, and the Iranian regime, Israel and America's Arab allies will have a say in events to come.  However, this CPAC conference hints at the growing pressure on the president to find a way out of the conflict. Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser, stated to the CPAC audience on Friday, "You have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do, especially now that we are on the eve, potentially, of the insertion of American combat troops." "This is a discussion that must take place."

Source: BBC