A Politico survey conducted this week found support among President Donald Trump’s supporters for continuing the war with Iran, even at rising domestic costs, falling from 50% in May to 37% in July. Nearly 1 in 5 MAGA voters is ready to end the fighting, whatever the cost, and 57% say the war has pushed gas prices upward. The broader public is harsher. Reuters/Ipsos polling last month found just 24% of Americans judged the war as worth its price.

But whatever the polls say, national security decisions should not be made over considerations of popularity. The operative question is whether the threat is real and if the benefits of military action outweigh the prospective costs. Public opinion often follows results far more than it predicts them, and a leader who succumbs to domestic sentiment hands the adversary leverage. The American public may not like foreign wars, but what it dislikes more is losing them.