‘My God, These Are Bad’: CNN’s Harry Enten Can’t Believe How ‘Horribly Unpopular’ Trump’s War Is
The war on Iran that the U.S. and Israel launched on Iran on Feb. 28 is broadly unpopular with American voters, and on Friday, CNN data analyst Harry Enten broke down just how unpopular it is.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war on Feb. 28. The war is currently in a ceasefire, though Iran is restricting travel through the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the U.S. has imposed a blockade on the country. About 20% of the world’s oil flows through the strait, and not surprisingly, oil prices have spiked over the past two months.
On Friday’s installment of The Source on CNN, host Kaitlan Collins played a montage of clips of Republican lawmakers acknowledging the price surges in oil and gasoline, while nonetheless arguing the war is worth the costs.
“What a losing political message that is,” Enten reacted before citing a recent CNBC poll. “If that’s the message that Republicans have settled on, the American people have quite a message contra to that, because just take a look here. I mean, hello, “Is the Iran war worth higher gas prices?” Just 34% of Americans say yes. About two in three – 64% – say no, no, no, nein, nein, nein. 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?'”
Collins responded by noting some remarks from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who insisted on Capitol Hill this week that Americans support the war.
“We’ve heard from the president and Secretary Hegseth this week,” Collins said. “They say the American people are on board with this war.”
Enten responded by citing a Washington Post poll:
No, no, no, no, absolutely not. Again, 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.
You look among independents, it’s 71% who say it was a mistake. And Kaitlan, you know, I see these numbers, and I go to myself, my God, these are bad. And it’s happened over just two months. It has happened over just two months.
So I was interested, looking back through history, how long did prior wars– I mean, just look at this. At least 60% say the war was a mistake. Months it took? Iran was two. You go back to the Iraq war. It was 51. It was 51 months. It took that is what, 25 times as long for the Iraq war to get at least 60% of the public to say it was a mistake.
And Vietnam, look at that. It took 74 months, 74 months. So this is just on a completely different planet. This war is horribly unpopular. And Republicans completing their political message like we heard in those earlier clips, it is a political loser, Kaitlan Collins.
Watch above via CNN.
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