Amna Nawaz:
The U.S. and Israeli war with Iran has caused a rare rift among conservatives, with several influential figures on the right condemning the war in its early days.
A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that, while most Republicans do support the war, young Republicans appear to be an outlier. Only 49 percent of those under the age of 30 say they approve of the way that President Trump has handled the conflict.
Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, has been key in organizing young conservatives, especially at their signature campus rallies.
Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, spoke to some of them at one such event right here in Washington last night.
So, Liz, tell us about the event, who you talked to and what they had to say.
Liz Landers:
This was at George Washington University’s campus, which is right here in the heart of Washington.
This event was a conversation between Erika Kirk and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt there. TPUSA has become a particularly powerful organizing tool for conservatives and the Republican Party. They have more than 3,500 university campus chapters and more than 300 staffers.
So we asked attendees who were in line waiting for the event what they thought about, one month into this conflict, this war with Iran. As you might expect, several had the president’s back.
Bailee Juszczyk, Student, University of Florida: I would say I confidently trust the president to handle his agenda and to handle any foreign policy affairs.
Liz Landers:
But others expressed opposition or even uncertainty.
Lila Harvey, Student, George Washington University:
We don’t want them to have immense power that’s going to hurt other people. But the way that it went about being out may not have been the right way of giving it. So I have been very conflicted on, like, I guess, the means of participation that we have taken part in.
Osewe Ogada, High School Student:
I aspire to join the Marines myself and I think it’s very good to serve your country. But I don’t see this war as serving America’s interests, not certainly — not its economic interests, political interests, social interests.
Naseem Craddock, Student, George Washington University:
We need to focus more on the United States first. I think there’s a lot of problems that could be solved in the United States before going into foreign conflict. To be honest, I think this was more Israel’s fight than the United States.
Liz Landers:
Under that last student there, Naseem, he’s Iranian American. So he said that this is a complex issue for him. He has complicated feelings about it. But he said that he thought it was good that the ayatollah was killed. And he said that his family also felt like they had — there was no tears, as he put it, that the ayatollah had been killed at the beginning of this conflict.
But, as you heard him say there, he also wants the focus to be back on domestic issues in the U.S. I asked him if this conflict, this war was going to impact his vote come November. He said probably not, but it’s other issues that are going to more personally impact him that he’s focused on.
Amna Nawaz:
That’s interesting.
Well, this being right there in the heart of the G.W. campus, I know you spoke to other students who weren’t there for the event, but who also said that they oppose the war. What did you hear from them?
Liz Landers:
We walked by two young women who were milling about, walking around on campus in between classes. And they said that they were both unhappy that TPUSA was there and also were in opposition to this conflict with Iran.
Take a listen to what Gabby told us.
Gabriela Andrews, Student, George Washington University:
We’re committing more crimes and it’s being used, our dollars that we don’t have. We’re both full Pell Grant students who are here completely on financial aid. She doesn’t have any right now. Mine is being cut. I’m deeply ashamed right now to be an American.
Liz Landers:
Gabby said that she watched President Trump’s speech on Wednesday night. And she said that she was particularly offended by the phrase that he used that he was going to bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages. She said that she thought that that was appalling.
Amna Nawaz:
Well, as you know, U.S. viewpoints on the Middle East have changed a lot over the years. Polls have shown young Democrats are increasingly less sympathetic towards Israel. But they’re also starting to show a similar trend among young Republicans. What have you found out about that when you talk to experts?
Liz Landers:
We spoke with Shibley Telhami. He’s a professor at the University of Maryland. And he also has been tracking and polling these issues with young voters for years now. He points to the war in Gaza in 2023 as a real important time stamp for when these shifting views on Israel started to come to more of the forefront, especially with Democrats and also these young Republicans.
Listen to what he told us.
Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland: We have seen the gap between younger and older Republicans became huge, particularly in terms of justifying what Israel was doing in Gaza.
And that has increased of late, particularly with regard to the Iran war, in large part because many of the podcasters and the commentary on the right, particularly the America first movement, have been highlighting the link between the Israeli aim to have war with Iran and the causes for the war, the U.S. going to war.
Liz Landers:
He attributes these shifts in attitudes for young Republicans in particular to two different things. He says, first of all, it’s about the anger of the United States supporting Israel in that Gaza conflict starting several years back that started during the Biden years, honestly.
Secondly, he says that the America first platform, and you heard him talk a little bit about that at the end there, that Trump ran on, promoting domestic issues here in the United States and no more foreign war intervention.
And that was something that we heard from young people across the political spectrum yesterday, that they believed that Trump had broken that promise that he would not get the United States involved in any more foreign wars.
Amna Nawaz:
Such an interesting look at how young voters are looking at this war.
White House correspondent Liz Landers, thank you.
Liz Landers:
Thanks.
