Five months into a war that Congress never authorized, two-thirds of Americans want the United States to end the conflict with Iran right now. President Trump is sitting at 35 percent approval on his handling of it. And the administration's response, delivered Sunday on Face the Nation by UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, was essentially: trust the process, the assets are moving, and historians will thank us.
The Numbers Don't Lie, So The Administration Ignores Them
A new CBS News poll released Sunday morning is the kind of data that gets printed out and taped above a general's desk as a warning. Two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. should end the conflict with Iran now. Only one-third say it should continue until Iran makes further concessions. Just 35 percent approve of how President Trump is handling the war.
Those are not the numbers of a popular wartime president. Those are the numbers of someone who has lost the room. And the room, in this case, is the entire country.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, sat across from Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation and absorbed this information with the composure of a man who has rehearsed for exactly this question. His response was to pivot to what the poll also showed: that Americans support the stated goals of the war, opening the Strait of Hormuz, ending Iran's nuclear program, stopping Iranian threats to neighboring countries. 'I don't think anyone else sees a better plan,' Waltz said. Which is a very specific thing to say when your plan is currently polling at 35 percent.
Thirteen Days of Bombing, Then... a Pause
Here is what happened in the days before this Sunday broadcast, according to CBS News reporting. The United States conducted 13 straight days of strikes on targets across Iran following the collapse of a short-lived ceasefire earlier this month. Then, for the first time since that bombardment began, there were no U.S. strikes on Friday. No strikes on Saturday either.
Waltz confirmed the pause on air and described it as 'giving diplomacy some space.' Regional sources told CBS that talks between Oman and Iran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz appear to be moving in a positive direction, though those same sources cautioned that more negotiations are still needed.
Brennan asked the obvious follow-up: how long will the bombing stop? Waltz's answer was essentially that he wasn't going to answer that, because taking options off the table for the president is not something he does on television. Fair enough. But he also made sure to remind Iran that 'additional military assets are moving into the region' and that the regime 'should believe the president when he says they're locked and loaded.' So: diplomacy, but make it threatening. Got it.
Oh, and President Trump told Axios on Thursday that he was considering 'a massive attack bigger than ever before.' Waltz confirmed there was a big meeting Friday. He said no final decision had been made. So that's where we are.
The Munitions Problem Waltz Really Did Not Want to Talk About
CBS News has separately reported that the United States cannot sustain the rate at which it expended precision munitions in the early phase of the Iran campaign, and that there is a shortage of interceptors. Brennan raised this directly with Waltz, who responded by talking about how badly degraded Iran's munitions are.
That is not the same thing as saying the CBS reporting is wrong. Waltz did not say the reporting was wrong. He pivoted to Iran's losses, then pivoted again to what would have happened if Trump had done nothing. That's a three-card monte move, and Brennan didn't let him finish it cleanly, but there it was.
Oil prices rose again last week to their highest level in more than a month, according to CBS News, which is the part of this war that ordinary Americans feel every single time they fill up a tank. The Pentagon, meanwhile, is asking Congress for additional funding as the costs of the conflict continue to mount. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Congress he needs $67 billion on an emergency basis to pay troops and restock munitions.
Bernie Sanders Would Like You to Know This War Is Illegal
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was also on Face the Nation Sunday, and he was not particularly interested in splitting the difference. 'The war in Iran is unconstitutional. It is illegal. Should never have been started,' he told Brennan. His position on the $67 billion emergency funding request from Hegseth was that the country needs that money for housing, healthcare, climate change, and a working class that is struggling.
Brennan pushed him on the obvious tension: you can oppose the war and still want to fund the troops who are in it. Sanders's answer was to say end the war, negotiate, stop the killing. 'Just cut the losses where they are?' Brennan asked. 'Yes,' Sanders said.
He also pointed out, and this part is worth sitting with, that both the House and the Senate have voted for War Powers Resolutions making clear that what Trump is doing is illegal. Those votes happened. The war continues anyway. Draw your own conclusions about the current state of congressional authority over military force.
The CBS poll had one particularly brutal data point for Democrats. When asked who has the better approach to Iran, 32 percent said Trump and the GOP. Only 30 percent said Democrats. The opposition party is losing the Iran question to a president sitting at 35 percent war approval. That is an achievement of a very specific kind.
Progressive Senate Races and the Billionaires Trying to Kill Them
With 100 days out from the midterm elections, Sanders used his Face the Nation time to talk about the progressive Senate candidates he is backing across the country. In Maine, 600 primary delegates voted Sunday to replace Graham Platner, who exited amid sexual assault allegations, with Troy Jackson, a logger and progressive who had previously been allied with Platner before calling on him to drop out.
Sanders said Jackson can win. He also acknowledged that the progressive field in Michigan and Minnesota, where Abdul El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan are running, faces a specific obstacle: billionaire-funded super PACs flooding the zone against them. According to Sanders, those super PACs are spending $50 million against El-Sayed in Michigan alone.
Brennan brought up Rahm Emanuel's Wall Street Journal op-ed warning that 'Bernie Bros could spoil Democrats' midterms,' arguing that progressive nominees with 'wildly unpopular positions' would protect Republicans from accountability. Sanders, predictably, was not moved by the Rahm Emanuel critique. The two sides of this intra-party fight have been having essentially the same argument since 2016, and nothing about a shooting war with Iran appears to have resolved it.
The Dingo Take
Let's be honest about what this moment actually looks like from the outside. The United States is five months into a war that was never authorized by Congress, that both chambers have voted against under the War Powers Act, that 67 percent of Americans want ended right now, and that has the president sitting at 35 percent approval. The administration's response to all of this is to say the goals are right, the plan is working, historians will agree, and also there are more assets moving into the region so don't get any ideas.
Mike Waltz is a smart guy and a combat veteran who clearly believes what he's saying. That almost makes it worse. Because the argument he's making, that the ends justify the means, that the American people support the goals even if they hate the execution, that no one has a better plan, is exactly the argument every administration makes about every endless war about two years before it becomes undeniable that the war was a catastrophic mistake. We have heard this before. We have heard it about Afghanistan. We have heard it about Iraq. Waltz himself referenced those wars on Sunday as cautionary tales, apparently without noticing the irony.
And the Democrats are polling two points behind Trump on Iran handling. Two points. The opposition party, in the middle of an unpopular war, is somehow losing the anti-war argument to the guy running the unpopular war. That tells you everything you need to know about the state of Democratic messaging right now. Sanders is out there saying 'illegal, unconstitutional, end it now,' and the party apparatus is busy warning about socialists ruining the midterms. Meanwhile the bombs, when they are falling, are landing on Iran. And the gas prices are landing on everyone else.
