State of the Union Could Be Trump’s Best Chance to Sell Voters on Iran Plans

The State of the Union address on Tuesday provides President Donald Trump with a nationally televised opportunity to persuade skeptical American voters to rally behind his threatened strikes against Iran over its nuclear program.

Advisers have urged Trump to focus on the economy, immigration, and other domestic policy issues when he takes the US House of Representatives podium for the speech at 9 pm ET (0200 GMT on Wednesday).

That has not been his focus to date.

Instead, the run-up to the event has been overshadowed by a huge buildup of US military forces in the Middle East and preparations for a conflict with Iran that could last for weeks if Tehran does not reach a deal to solve a longstanding dispute over its nuclear program.

Trump has not laid out in detail to the American public why he might be leading the US into its most aggressive action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

On Monday, he dismissed talk that some members of his administration have doubts about going to war with Iran.

“I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people,” Trump said in a social media post.

Trump rose to the top of US politics with the passionate support of a political base that embraces his “America First” policies and his vow to end an era of “forever wars” like the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trump’s fellow Republicans also took control of both the House of Representatives and Senate as his “Make America Great Again” message resonated with many Americans, but opinion polls show the party will struggle to keep control of Congress.

Polls also show Americans wary of foreign conflicts. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from January showed 69% of Americans agreed with a statement the US should only use its military when facing a direct and imminent threat, while 18% disagreed and the rest weren’t sure or didn’t answer the question.

The risks from an Iran conflict are not merely political.

Trump and his aides have touted his successful capture last month of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but Iran, a nation of 93 million people with a large supply of missiles, is a more formidable foe.

Trump asserted in July that US strikes on Iran the previous month had been so successful that they “obliterated” the country’s nuclear facilities, saying, “It would take years to bring them back into service.”

However, as US ships and other military equipment amassed near Iran, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who leads nuclear negotiations on the US side, said on Sunday on Fox News that Iran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”

Trump’s audience on Tuesday includes Democrats in Congress who criticized him for scrapping a 2015 agreement that limited Iran‘s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief only to later threaten military action while seeking a new pact.

Critics, including Trump, argued the deal’s limits on the Iranian nuclear program were insufficient and temporary, while giving the regime large sums of money through sanctions relief to continue supporting terrorism.