Putting boots on the ground could kill Trump’s presidency

A new poll released Wednesday found that, although 63% of Republicans support airstrikes against Iranian military targets, only 20% are in favor of deploying U.S. troops.

That’s only about 2 in 10 Republicans in favor of boots on the ground. Again, these are Republicans — including MAGA.

Among all Americans, according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 62% percent oppose deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Iran.

“Trump still has deep support among Republicans,” according to the poll summary, but the results indicate that he “risks frustrating his voters during a midterm election year if the United States gets involved in the kind of prolonged war in the Middle East that he promised to avoid.”

This new survey comes on the heels of several other ones that show Americans drawing a bright line sending ground troops into this war.

A Data for Progress poll from mid-March showed similar results, with 68% of all respondents saying they opposed deploying U.S. troops to Iran. Breaking down by party ID, 48% of Republicans, 85% of Democrats and 71% of independents said they were opposed to boots on the ground.

A Quinnipiac University poll taken between March 6 and 8 found that 74% of voters oppose U.S. ground troops in Iran, with only 20% supporting. In that poll, 52% of Republicans, 95% of Democrats and 75% of independents said they oppose.

It would seem the fate of Trump’s presidency lies in his decision to enter into a ground war with Iran — something successive presidents, including himself, have promised not to do since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in which millions of American men and women served over a 20-year period, draining resources, morale and, frankly, recruitment potential for the services.

In poll after poll, the majority of Americans oppose going to war with Iran at all, and fear a prolonged war that will suck the country into another quagmire.

This should set alarm bells in the administration. Republicans continue to support the war but in decreasing numbers, and they have clearly soured even more on the idea of sending in ground troops.

There’s more. A new Fox News poll released on Wednesday revealed just how low Trump’s numbers were sinking and why. The results showed that 62% of voters disapproved of the president overall, but 64% specifically said they did not approve of how he had handled the Iran conflict.

The AP poll story featured a Trump voter, 68-year-old Donnie Beson, of Colorado, who told the news outlet that he does not regret supporting the president, but also added, “Come on, Trump. Worry about us. We’re in a billion-dollar-a-day war. It’s like, ‘Man, you forgot about the other stuff, and you got to take care of that first.’”

He wants Trump to focus on serious domestic problems that affect everyday Americans as opposed to questionable foreign wars.

How many Donnie Besons are out there, Trump voters who still don’t regret supporting the president but are frustrated with his actions to date particularly regarding Iran?

Trump’s numbers among all Americans, including Republicans, are going to fritter away if he puts ground troops in, and especially if they get bogged down and get killed. The path forward for Trump is in the polling. If he doesn’t want the fate of George W. Bush, whose legacy was tarnished by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he needs to find a way to turn it around.