Trump’s War Is More Unpopular Than Iraq and Vietnam, New Poll Shows

It took years for the Iraq and Vietnam wars to hit this low point.

It’s official: Donald Trump’s war in Iran is less popular than some of the least popular wars of all time.

Sixty-one percent of Americans said that using military force in Iran was a mistake, according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll Friday, placing how Americans feel about Trump’s campaign in Iran on par with attitudes about the Iraq and Vietnam wars.

In May 2006, three years after U.S. forces invaded Iraq, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 59 percent of Americans said that the war was a mistake.

By that point in the war, more than 2,400 U.S. troops had died and the U.S. military was embroiled in some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire conflict. But the Iraq War was still more popular than Trump’s so-called “excursion” into Iran, which has killed an estimated 13 service members.

In January 1973, the same year that U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, 60 percent of Americans believed that it had been a mistake to send troops there in the first place, according to a Gallup poll.

Trump has repeatedly bragged about how quickly he would have ended the war in Vietnam—despite the fact that he dodged the military draft multiple times—because of his supposedly resounding success in Iran. But only 19 percent of Americans say that the U.S. military campaign in Iran has been successful, according to the Friday poll.

It’s not entirely clear how that 19 percent arrived at that conclusion. While Trump has repeatedly declared victory, so has Iran.

Republican Governor Refuses to Join Trump’s Gerrymandering Wars

Georgia’s Brian Kemp is refusing to take action after the Supreme Court ruling—for now.

One Republican governor isn’t going along with President Trump’s attempt to redraw congressional maps around the country.

Georgia’s Brian Kemp said Friday that he isn’t going to cancel the state’s May 19 primary elections in order to draw new maps in time for November, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais Wednesday, which severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.

Kemp still praised the decision, telling The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the ruling “restores fairness to our redistricting process and allows states to pass electoral maps that reflect the will of the voters, not the will of federal judges.” But it’s too late for the midterms, he added.

“Voting is already underway for the 2026 elections,” Kemp said. “But it’s clear that Callais requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”

Several Republican-run states, particularly in the South are scrambling to make changes to their congressional maps due to the high-court ruling, including Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry even announced that he was suspending his state’s May 16 primary elections in order to redraw the state’s congressional map.

Still, Trump is not likely to be happy that one Republican governor won’t follow along with his efforts, especially in Georgia, where the president still claims that Joe Biden winning the state in 2020 was rigged due to fraud. Kemp was in his first term as governor at the time, and Trump held him responsible for not overturning the results. Kemp might see an angry Truth Social post directed at him pretty soon.

Trump Sons Land Massive Military Deal as Family Corruption Grows

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump also bought a stake in a federally contracted mining company.

The president’s elder sons are making money hand over fist off of their father’s office.

At least two companies tied to Don Jr. and Eric Trump have won large government contracts, setting the stage for the Trump family to make a sizable chunk of change from their involvement in the federal government.

Powerus, a drone manufacturer led by former U.S. Army Special Operations veterans, was founded last year. Trump’s two sons became tied to the company’s board after it merged with a golf club in March, a decision that took the company public via a reverse merger. The brothers’ investment firm, American Venture, has backed the combined entity, and their boutique investment bank, Dominari Securities, was also involved in the transaction.

This past week, the U.S. Air Force agreed to buy an undisclosed number of drones from Powerus as America’s war with Iran hits the 60-day mark. The company’s co-founder, Brett Velicovich, claimed the decision had nothing to do with its investors’ obvious ties to the White House.

“They’re not going to pick a system because of who’s on an investor list,” Velicovich told Bloomberg. “They’re picking because they need it now.”

There are at least 187 drone manufacturers based in the United States, according to a November report from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

But that isn’t the Trump family’s only financial coup this week: A shell company backed by Don Jr. and Eric agreed to merge with a major tungsten mine in Kazakhstan that just last year secured $1.6 billion in U.S. government support.

The two brothers bought into a construction company, Skyline Builders, last August, through a special-purpose vehicle arranged by Dominari Securities, sources told the Financial Times.

Weeks later, in September, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Donald Trump that he intended to award a major tungsten project to U.S. investment group Cove Kaz Capital, an entity backed by the U.S. government, to compete against Chinese and Russian mining companies. That story emerged in the press on October 21.

By October 28, Eric and Don Jr. had added almost $24 million to their Skyline investment. On October 31, Skyline paid $20 million for a 20 percent stake in Kaz Resources, a subsidiary of Cove Capital, an investment company that controls Cove Caz.

Cove Capital’s deal with the National Mining Company of Kazakhstan became public on November 6, with an announcement that they would jointly develop “the largest known undeveloped tungsten resource in the world.”

Cove Kaz Capital and Kaz Resources agreed to merge with the brothers’ investment firm, Skyline, on Thursday, reported the Financial Times, which noted that there was no mention of either Trump brother in the merger announcement.

A representative for Don Jr. denied that he had any knowledge of his father’s dealings prior to the initial investment or the merger.

“Don is a passive investor in American Ventures and has no operational involvement in the company,” his spokesperson told the Financial........

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