White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is warning Donald Trump’s inner circle to level with the president about the dire state of his war on Iran.
Wiles, 68, has grown increasingly alarmed that the 79-year-old president is being fed a watered-down version of the American public’s overwhelmingly negative view of the conflict, which he launched in coordination with Israel on February 28, two White House sources told Time on Thursday.
The Trump appointee, who is currently battling breast cancer, has urged colleagues to be “more forthright with the boss” about the political and economic backlash to the war, according to the outlet. The disconnect, she fears, is only worsening the political fallout for the GOP ahead of an already fraught midterm election cycle.
Ample polling justifies Wiles’ fears. An Economist-YouGov poll released this week found that just 28 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat support the war with Iran, while 59 percent oppose it—a 23-point drop from a survey conducted just one week earlier.
Separate polling by Ipsos, conducted Friday through Sunday, and AP-NORC, conducted March 19 through March 23, also showed opposition outpacing support by more than 4 to 1, The Washington Post reported.
A month into Trump’s war, there’s plenty fueling that frustration. Oil prices have surged more than 50 percent after Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Average gas prices nationwide topped $4 per gallon this week, and transatlantic airfares are up by about $200 on average compared to a month ago, according to a Deutsche Bank AG analysis.
The human toll is even darker: At least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 300 injured.
During the president’s roughly 19-minute televised address on Wednesday night, he appeared to want to soothe nerves by signaling that the war he started without congressional approval would eventually wind down.
Instead, he seemed to sow even more doubt, telling viewers the conflict would likely last an additional two to three weeks, during which he plans to hit Iran “extremely hard” in order to bomb it back to the “Stone Ages,” likely targeting key electricity plants if no ceasefire deal is reached. On Thursday, global prices climbed even higher.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
