Trump keeps hinting he’ll resume the Iran war after the midterms. These Iowa GOP voters sound wary

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

Sioux City, Iowa (CNN) — When Christine Brenden, an Iowa paralegal who staunchly supports President Donald Trump, went to fill her gas tank a year ago, it cost around $40.

Now, she said, the cost has jumped to $60. Standing in line to see Trump speak at an airport in Sioux City on Thursday, Brenden predicted fuel prices would only jump further if, as Trump has hinted, he resumes the war with Iran after November’s midterm elections.

“I bet it would skyrocket again,” she said.

As Trump embarks on a frenetic campaign blitz, hoping to rally base enthusiasm behind Republican candidates, he routinely teases that a decisive end to the war is just around the corner.

But in Iowa — where the GOP is trying to defend a Senate seat and several US House seats — the prospect of a new, intensive round of bombing received mostly negative reviews among the Republicans CNN spoke with, both those attending Trump’s event and those who decided to skip it.

“He started something, I don’t know how he’s going to finish it. I think it’s time for Israel, Saudi Arabia, some of the other countries to either jump in or jump out,” said Scott Rhinehart, a retired lawyer, outside the Sioux City post office. He said he was a loyal Republican, but wasn’t attending Trump’s rally.

By some measures, Iowa has been among the states hardest hit by the consequences of the Iran war. High gas and diesel prices have hurt the state’s farmers, making it more expensive to transport their products, and two service members who were from the state have died in the conflict.

The GOP Senate nominee, Rep. Ashley Hinson — who is set to appear with Trump Thursday night — has struck a delicate balance as she fights for a seat in a state Trump won by double digits two years ago. She voted against a House resolution, which two vulnerable Iowa GOP lawmakers backed, that would limit Trump’s powers to continue fighting the war. But Hinson’s been outspoken in calling the war too expensive and calling on Trump to bring it to a “successful and immediate end.”

The president has said he doesn’t intend to resume strikes against Iran before Election Day, mindful the war has proven deeply unpopular at home, including among many of his own supporters.

“Well in one way, they love it because I’m doing what should have been done by other presidents, and another way maybe they don’t. It’s — there’s a price to pay, which I knew immediately when I did it, but we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Thursday while departing the White House for Iowa.

“This should have been done a long time ago by other presidents. The Iran war — and we’ve knocked the hell out of them, and we may do it a little bit further,” he added.

Behind the scenes, advisers have drawn up plans for renewed strikes in coordination with Israel that could be executed as soon as Trump gives the go-ahead.

Targets include nuclear sites, energy facilities and Iran’s remaining missile and drone arsenal, according to US officials, who described a potential renewal of the conflict as short but intense.

One option under active consideration, according to officials: using the so-called “mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear ordnance in the US arsenal, to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites.

There is no guarantee Trump will approve new strikes, and he has previously backed off when he seemed close to ordering a new onslaught. But crisscrossing the country this month, he has strongly suggested to rally audiences they should expect decisive action in the near term.

The hint of further action wasn’t sitting well in this heavily agricultural state, with less than two weeks to go until the midterms.

Peyton Webster, a 22-year-old agriculture student attending the rally with a friend, said she wouldn’t welcome another round of bombing because of the toll it would take on farmers. She said farm policy was her number one issue as a voter.

“It would probably just keep (gas prices) up higher, and that’s especially just hard on smaller family units when it’s tight as it is, so that wouldn’t help,” she said. “I like us putting our efforts toward our country and improving the lives of our citizens, and then going and involving in foreign affairs.”

The costs of the war here have been more than just economic. Two soldiers from Iowa — Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, from Indianola, and Sgt. Declan Coady, from West Des Moines — were killed at the start of the conflict when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations center in Kuwait. Both were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, based in Des Moines.

Reflecting the pressure many in Trump’s party face because of the war, two Iowa Republicans, Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, voted last month for the war powers resolution in the House.

Hinson — who promised in the Oval Office last month to bring a pork chop to Trump if he campaigned in Iowa — has taken a more measured tone even as she’s sought some distance from the president.

“Successful end, to me, means we have to have assurances that there will never be a nuclear program in Iran,” Hinson said during a debate on Tuesday with Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek, with whom she’s locked in a neck-and-neck race.

“I trust the US military to achieve that objective, whatever that looks like. I’ve met with our generals, had those conversations, but I’ve also met with the families.”

“I don’t want to see that happen to another family,” she went on, “and nobody wants a forever war.”

Outside the airplane hangar where Hinson and the president were set to speak, however, even ardent Trump supporters sounded somewhat skeptical that renewing the war would be worthwhile.

“It feels like it’s run longer than I kind of expected it to,” said Brandon Jorgensen, a 41-year-old pastor. “When we first got in, I felt like the language was very much, so like this is going to be quick. Like we’re going to come in, show a lot of force, and come through a quick end. And that hasn’t been really what I’ve seen.”

Les Cleveringa, a business owner, was less dubious.

“Costs are higher, but a nuclear war is a lot more expensive,” he said. “I’m not sure it’ll affect prices, but I think it might bring an end to the war.”

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