As the war in Iran enters its fourth week, there’s ample evidence of broad public opposition to the conflict. Indeed, while recent history suggests wars usually enjoy support at the outset, only to see public attitudes turn negative as operations drag on, the conflict in Iran is unique: It was unpopular from the start.

The latest national CBS News/YouGov poll offered fresh evidence of the larger trend: 57% of Americans believe the war is going badly; 63% believe the military offensive will make the economy worse in the short term; 60% disapprove of the U.S. taking military action against Iran; and 66% see the conflict as a war of choice. The results were largely in line with other recent national polling.

Confronted with the data, the White House and its allies have a few options. They could argue that the polls will change in time. They could try to say that Donald Trump believes in pursuing his agenda whether it’s popular or not. They could even make up alternative polling data that doesn’t exist, as the president has been known to do.

But on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, Trump’s former White House national security adviser, went in a very different direction.

When host Margaret Brennan presented Waltz with the latest polling results, the Republican official replied, “Well, I could quote a whole slew of polls that show, for example, self-described MAGA Republicans give the president 100% approval.”

Looking down at prepared notes he’d brought with him onto the set, Waltz added, “I can point here to an NBC poll [that found] 90% of Republicans, broader Republicans, support Trump’s effort to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

It was a candid peek into a curious perspective: To hear the ambassador tell it, it doesn’t much matter what Americans think; what matters is what Republicans think.

Sure, national surveys show broad public opposition to the war that the president launched for reasons he’s struggled to explain, but according to Waltz, voters outside of the GOP base, in a rather literal sense, don’t count.

The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie recently argued, “Trump seems to see Democratic-led states — and the people in them — less as constituents to which he has a set of larger obligations and more as enemies to be pacified and defeated. For Trump, there is no whole people of the United States. There are only his people and his states.”

Waltz tacitly endorsed this argument to a national television audience, shrugging off the attitudes of a majority of Americans and focusing entirely on like-minded partisans. That perspective might make Team Trump feel better in the short term, but it’s worth reminding the White House that when the midterm elections arrive in the fall, MAGA Republicans won’t be the only ones casting ballots.

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