Stephen Caraway, 40, was driving residence in Ohio on Saturday night time when he noticed the information that the USA struck three Iranian nuclear websites.
Caraway, a Republican who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, applauded the president on his “decisive management.”
“I’m actually happy with our navy and grateful that the operation was successful and everyone seems to be secure,” he informed ABC Information hours after the assault.
ABC Information interviewed greater than a half dozen Individuals who voted for Trump within the 2024 presidential election after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear websites on Saturday however earlier than Iran launched missiles at Qatar on Monday, focusing on the American Al-Udeid Air Base.
President Donald Trump and Secretrary of State Marco Rubio within the Scenario Room, on the White Home in Washington, June 21, 2025.
@WhiteHouse/X
Most, like Caraway, indicated assist for the U.S. strikes, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, and mentioned they trusted Trump to guard and pursue American pursuits, together with stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, whereas conserving the U.S. out of a chronic regional battle.
“I’m not involved a few long-term warfare, as a result of President Trump won’t put up with it,” Caraway defined.
In a Washington Publish ballot carried out Wednesday, 46% of Trump voters mentioned they’d assist airstrikes, with 26% opposed and 28% uncertain.
All through the 2024 marketing campaign, Trump touted that he was “the one president in generations who didn’t begin a warfare” and pointed to the necessity to keep away from partaking in “unending wars” — a pledge that some non-interventionist Republican leaders have now accused him of betraying.
Whereas many Republicans have praised Trump’s actions, some distinguished lawmakers and conservative figures against navy motion continued to criticize the strikes on Monday.
“I didn’t sleep higher after neocons and warmongers talked this administration into getting into a scorching warfare that Israel began,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., mentioned in an interview on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s “Battle Room” program Monday.
“MAGA shouldn’t be for overseas wars. We’re not for regime change. We’re for America First,” Greene mentioned.
This satellite tv for pc picture supplied by Maxar Applied sciences exhibits a better view of craters and ash on a ridge at Fordo enrichment facility in Iran after U.S. strikes, June 22, 2025.
Satellite tv for pc picture 2025 Maxar Applied sciences
Two voters informed ABC Information they had been dissatisfied by Trump’s resolution to assault.
“Trump broke his promise,” mentioned Sean Savage, 81, from Illinois. “I’m fearful this might flip actually large.”
Nonetheless, Savage nonetheless stood by his vote for Trump in 2024. “There was no different alternative for me. I like most of what Trump has completed, however that is one factor that I don’t approve,” he mentioned.
Different Trump voters informed ABC Information they believed that the airstrikes ordered by Trump didn’t battle together with his America First agenda.
“I believe you may also see it as placing our navy pursuits and our overseas property and strategic pursuits first as effectively,” defined Andre Boccaccio, a 19-year-old from Arizona.
Trump “desires peace, and I believe our nation has to again him,” mentioned Lauren, a 59-year-old from California who declined to share her final title.
Lauren additionally informed ABC Information that Iran’s nuclear program may result in even higher threats to the U.S. sooner or later.
“Am I fearful for the longer term? Nicely, sure. However I believe that if we do not disarm nations which have the flexibility to create harmful warfare … it may possibly escalate, and our nation and our development might be in large hassle,” she mentioned.
In response to the Wednesday Washington Publish ballot, 22% of Individuals seen Iran’s nuclear program as a direct and severe menace, and 48% noticed it as a considerably severe menace.
Elana Pritchard, a 43-year-old Texan, informed ABC Information she noticed the weekend strikes as preventative, not provocative.
“I actually do suppose that he was simply throwing a giant punch,” she mentioned. “They had been making an attempt to preemptively cease what may have been extra of an escalating disaster between Iran and Israel, which most likely would have dragged the USA into the battle anyway.”
Practically everybody contacted by ABC Information defended Trump’s resolution to proceed with out Congress’ approval, rejecting the argument made by a number of lawmakers that the navy motion was unconstitutional.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees Air Pressure Gen. Dan Caine discusses the mission particulars of a strike on Iran throughout a information convention on the Pentagon, June 22, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
“The method of declaring wars is outdated,” mentioned Ronald Barron, a 46-year-old voter from Georgia, saying that “it’ll be manner too late” by the point Congress completed voting.
“There is a very clear precedent that has been set by commanders-in-chief” who have to “act promptly and swiftly” to guard American security, mentioned Caraway, the Ohio Republican. “And let’s be trustworthy with each other, Congress does not do something promptly and swiftly.”
In the end, Trump’s supporters within the final election defaulted to trusting the president to do what was greatest for the nation, with many pointing to the truth that he has entry to nationwide safety intelligence that the majority Individuals usually are not aware of.
Whereas Boccaccio described the motion as “surprising,” he mentioned he believed “there’s a cause behind what we’re doing.”
Earlier than the strikes, Barron, the Georgia voter, informed ABC Information that the Trump administration had been “horrible on the overseas facet” within the early months of the president’s second time period, and described Trump’s calls for for Iran to give up final week as “warmongering.”
However in a followup interview after the strikes, he was extra optimistic about Trump’s technique.
“He is going about it in like a mafioso, “American Gangster”-type manner,” he mentioned. “For the final 150 years, they have been having firm guys which have been toeing the corporate line … So possibly we attempt one thing unconventional, one thing that is not even within the books, which may work.”
Freddie, a 65-year-old from Virginia, informed ABC Information she had combined emotions concerning the assault, and whether or not Trump made the correct name to order the strikes.
“I do not know what the leaders know, and I’m not meant to know what the leaders know, so I can solely wait and see,” she mentioned.
Both manner, she defined that her view of Trump was formed extra by his home agenda somewhat than the battle in Iran.
“When the warfare involves your soil, you get somewhat bit extra concerned in it,” Freddie elaborated. “However that’s midway around the globe. It’s simple for me to say I do not care about that.”
