Republicans suffered a sharp setback in the midterms, and President Trump needs to understand why, Liz Wheeler said. In her view, several issues have weakened his support among voters who backed him.
Wheeler argued that the war with Iran affected Trump’s base, pointing to opposition to prolonged conflicts and rising fuel costs as two main concerns. She said both helped drive dissatisfaction.
Though Wheeler said she also opposes drawn-out wars and dislikes high gas prices, she called comparisons with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unfair. She argued that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is a goal many Americans support, since she sees such weapons as a threat to the United States as well as its allies.
She also noted that Trump has long criticized “forever wars,” saying he helped persuade conservatives and Republicans to oppose them.
Another source of frustration, Wheeler said, was Trump’s prediction that the conflict would end within days or weeks. When a president makes a promise like that and fails to deliver, she said, voters can lose confidence.
In Wheeler’s view, Trump’s supporters might have been more willing to accept the war and its effect on gas prices if they had greater trust in him. She said that trust could have been strengthened by delivering on promises of accountability.
Wheeler pointed to figures including Anthony Fauci and John Brennan, arguing that the administration had not held Democrats accountable for what she described as the weaponization of government under President Biden. That failure, she said, has left some Trump voters disillusioned because they supported him in hopes of seeing justice.
