Trump says Iran war is worth the economic pain. These rural voters agree

By Brad Brooks

WIGGINS, Colorado, May 16 (Reuters) – Sitting behind the register at Stubs liquor store, Amy Van Duyn looked out the window at a red-green gas price sign that she said was increasing every day.

The price was $4.34 per gallon; That was nearly 50% higher than the price in those areas when President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.

“I was filling up my tank for $36,” Van Duyn, 42, said. “Now $36 buys me half a tank.”

Co-worker Tonyah Bruyette said she wonders where all her money goes when it’s time to buy food: “Instead of putting it on our desk, we put it in the tank.”

Like most people in and around Wiggins, a farming town of 1,400 in northeastern Colorado, Van Duyn and Bruyette remain ardent supporters of the president, who wins Morgan County by 49 percentage points in 2024.

Nationally, Trump’s political chances appear to be waning. His war with Iran has caused fuel prices nationwide to rise above $4.50 a gallon, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans blame the president for rising gas prices.

Trump was asked this week whether people’s economic woes motivated him to reach a deal with Tehran. “I don’t think about the financial situation of Americans,” he replied. “When we talk about Iran, the only important thing is that they cannot have nuclear weapons.”

Democrats seized on the comments as evidence that the administration had lost touch with a concerned public. Only 30% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, as of a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May; It’s an issue that has long been one of Trump’s political strengths.

But in two dozen recent interviews along Colorado’s Highway 52, a two-lane asphalt road dotted with grain silos, feedlots and oil pumps, Trump voters echoed the president’s logic.

Voters in Morgan and Weld counties, which have not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1964, were willing to pay more for gas if it meant eliminating a possible nuclear threat from Iran. Many people said energy prices have also increased under President Joe Biden.

Some reluctantly sided with Trump because they dislike Democrats; Others expressed belief that the president had a plan to cut costs. It was a testament to Trump’s enduring, personal connection with his base that has enabled him to weather multiple crises over two terms.

“It looks like he hears us,” Bruyette said, “he’s fighting for us.”

‘We are ready to make sacrifices’

About 25 miles southwest of Wiggins, Jim Miller was up to his elbows in the engine of his broken-down Dodge pickup truck.

Miller, a 65-year-old retired commodities broker who grew up in the liberal city of Boulder and now lives in tiny Prospect Valley, describes himself as “part hippie, part cowboy.”

He said enduring the immediate pain of high gas prices was worth preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Miller recalled America’s stories of resilience during World War II, when goods were rationed and households lived with less.

“I’m struggling like everyone else, but I’m willing to make some sacrifices,” Miller said. “People have completely lost their willingness to sacrifice in this country.”

In the unincorporated town of Roggen was Mike Urbanowicz, a 66-year-old merchant with multiple college degrees whose agricultural cooperative hauled 150 truckloads of grain every day.

He voted for Trump three times, but like many people interviewed by Reuters, he considers himself a political independent and says he doesn’t trust the Republican Party nearly as much as his Democratic foes.

He said gas prices were hurting his industry and that Trump was “naive” enough to think he could fix the problem quickly. He expected prices to remain high in the fall even if there was progress in the stalled US-Iran peace talks.

But he preferred the status quo to the Democrats, whom he saw as moving toward “full-blown socialism.”

“I voted for Trump because the alternative was so bad,” he said.

‘ALL IN ONE’

In Fort Morgan, Lexys Siebrands, 22, lay face down on a table at the Bad Medicine Inkporium tattoo parlor and smiled through the pain in her left calf, where a wanted poster, stagecoach and other Western-themed designs were displayed.

Siebrands, a gay woman who recently discovered Christianity, once considered herself a Democrat, but around 2022 — citing what she called liberals’ hypocrisy on identity politics — she began to consider herself a Republican and voted for Trump.

He saw war with Iran as inevitable. “Whether Iran did something to us or we did something to them, eventually something would happen.”

Sitting next to her daughter was 49-year-old Jyl Siebrands. He grew up as a political independent but later turned to Republicans.

He said he hated high gas prices but was even more afraid of the possibility of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons. “This is exactly where we are in this war,” he said. “People need to give it time.”

Did they have red lines? Is there anything that could shake Trump’s faith in the way he’s handling the war or the economy?

“No,” he said. “I’m totally on board.”

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and David Gaffen;)