At CPAC, many Republicans stand by Trump on Iran. But they're divided on how the war could end.
As Republicans grapple with a war in Iran during a tight midterm cycle, speakers and attendees at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference are toeing a fine line between backing the Trump administration's war effort and hinting at worries about the conflict expanding.
To be sure, most members of President Trump's party firmly support the war. Some 84% of Republicans approved of the U.S. taking military action against Iran in a CBS News poll released last weekend. Support falls somewhat, to 70%, among non-MAGA Republicans.
But some Trump supporters have expressed hesitation about a conflict with Iran or concerns about its scope — and many are broadly wary of the U.S. intervening abroad.
The debate is playing out during an election year, as Americans' views on the war — and on its impacts on energy prices — could influence who wins control of Congress. The most recent CBS News poll found that 69% of independents are opposed to U.S. military action in Iran.
Deborah Thorne, a longtime Trump ally, said she supports his administration's efforts in Iran, but suggested that she isn't looking for a long-term war.
"I think Trump's right," Thorne told CBS News. "I think the Iranian people need to be in charge of their country. I don't think Americans need to go in there and do what they've done in other wars, but I do believe Trump is right as far as we have to finish what we've started with them."
Some attendees of CPAC, the annual conservative gathering that's being held this year in the Dallas area, were emphatic that they don't want to see ground forces. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that ground troops won't be necessary to achieve the U.S.'s goals in Iran, but Mr. Trump hasn't ruled out the idea, and Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for potentially deploying such forces, CBS News has previously reported.
"I don't want our boys and girls going to fight in Iran," Janie Dean, a traveling nurse from central Texas, told CBS News. "It's going to be another Vietnam. We need to stomp them out once and for all so that that's not an issue with them. And then we need to get out."
Dean said that despite her concerns, she continues to support President Trump and trusts his "judgment and discernment."
While former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida similarly backed the president, he urged Mr. Trump to use "every diplomatic tool at his disposal" with Iran and voiced his concerns about the prospect of a U.S. ground operation.
"A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe," Gaetz said bluntly during his remarks on Thursday. "It will mean higher gas prices, higher food prices, and I'm not sure we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create."
However, a significant number of Iranian Americans attended CPAC this year to hear from former Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi — whose father led Iran for decades before the 1979 Islamic Revolution — and to advocate for the continued military operation in Iran.
"It's a very, very brutal theocratic dictatorship which has been ruling Iran with iron fists for the past 47 years," Shahin Nezhad, a petroleum engineer from Houston who left Iran in 1997, told CBS News. "It's very obvious you cannot just get rid of these people just by civil disobedience. As a nation, what you need is big support from outside."
Nezhad was one of many attendees who immigrated to the United States from Iran following the 1979 revolution, when the country's current clerical regime rose to power. Many of them praised Mr. Trump for taking action in the country and expressed their hopes that U.S. military action can topple the regime.
Hours after launching strikes last month, Mr. Trump encouraged the Iranian people to rise up against the country's government. But at other points, he has suggested his goals are more modest, describing it as a "short-term excursion" to degrade Iran's military.
Mr. Trump has said at times that he wants a say in who runs Iran, but he also likes the idea of a moderate insider running the country. As for Pahlavi, who hasn't lived in Iran since before his father's monarchic government fell, Mr. Trump has said that "some people like him" but "it would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate."
"I hope Trump will be really serious about getting rid of the regime in Iran and we have a new start with the leadership of Crown Prince Pahlavi," Nassar Meyman of Dallas told CBS News. "Sometimes, when Mr. Trump talks about, 'I'm going to negotiate and find somebody inside the regime, somebody inside Iran', that makes us rather worried."
On the subject of a U.S. ground operation in Iran, many Iranian-Americans who attended CPAC said they believed sending troops to Iran would be necessary in order to topple the regime or destroy Iran's missile stockpiles. Nezhad noted that, even if the U.S. degrades Iran's military capabilities, its repressive internal security forces could still cling to power.
"So, I think boots on the ground, on a limited basis and for a particular purpose, is probably inevitable. It has to be done," he said.
Still, even as support for Mr. Trump remains strong within the GOP coalition, a handful of high-profile conservatives have raised questions about the war with Iran.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said this week she hasn't "seen an exit strategy yet" and has "grave concerns" about it turning into "another 20-year-plus endless war." And National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned earlier this month over the war, saying Iran "posed no imminent threat." The White House has vehemently pushed back on Kent's claims.
More broadly, skepticism of foreign interventions has long been core to Mr. Trump's political identity. During his ascent to power in 2016, Mr. Trump frequently broke with more hawkish members of his party on the merits of the Iraq war.
Steve Bannon, who led Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and served as a White House strategist in the first Trump term, briefly touched on the dynamics playing out with the conflict in Iran during his remarks at CPAC on Friday.
Bannon has long been a proponent of an "America First" ideology rooted in economic nationalism and a strong opposition to foreign policy interventionism that critics often view as isolationism. He first expressed wariness about whether U.S. operations in Iran could lead to wider war before last year's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
In his speech, Bannon said that how to navigate the conflict with Iran is ultimately Mr. Trump's decision, and he didn't take a specific position on how the war should proceed. But Bannon suggested that there should be a debate on the issue, saying that "people have to have his back," and "you're only going to do that with full information."
"You have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do, particularly now that we're on the eve of potentially the insertion of American combat troops," Bannon said. "Your sons, daughters, granddaughters, grandsons could be on Kharg Island or be holding a beachhead down by the Strait of Hormuz."