Mark Alford says Missouri’s willing to ‘sacrifice’ for Trump’s Iran war. Are you? | Opinion
Are you ready to pay any price and bear any burden to assure the success of President Donald Trump’s don’t-call-it-a-war in Iran?
Mark Alford thinks so.
As oil prices spiked on Friday, the Missouri GOP congressman went on TV to assure viewers that Americans generally — and his Show-Me State constituents specifically — are willing to endure some pain if that means defeating Iran’s mullahs once and for all.
Sacrifice? No problem.
“I think we all know that when you have a kinetic conflict like this — whether you want to call it a war or not, we are putting energy, resources, money into this — it is going to take a little bit of sacrifice on the part of Americans,” Alford said on NewsNation.
He added: “I think the average American in my district understands the need that we decapitate this terrorist regime and make sure it never grows a head again.”
Maybe he’s right.
Maybe Americans are ready to absorb higher gas prices. Maybe they’re ready to tighten their belts a little or a lot to assure victory for a war of choice in Iran.
But there are three reasons we should suspect he’s very wrong.
For one thing, Alford can barely bring himself to name the thing — “war” — that requires Americans to endure a little pain.
Like a lot of elected Republicans these days, the congressman would rather use muddy terms such as “kinetic conflict” or quibble about “whether you want to call it a war or not” rather than directly describe the deadly bomb-dropping reality that Trump is creating in the Middle East.
Why would Americans make sacrifices for a euphemism?
Most unpopular war at launch in history
Second, it is now clear that the Trump administration and its surrogates like Alford have failed to convince the broader public that a war against Iran is necessary. Polling suggests that half of Americans oppose the military strikes, while barely more than a third are supportive.
“That makes this the most unpopular war at launch in the history of modern polling,” G. Elliot Morris and David Nir wrote in the Strength in Numbers political newsletter.
Why would Americans make sacrifices for a cause they don’t believe in?
Which leads to the third problem for Alford’s thesis: Trump didn’t bother to make any public case for war ahead of time, or to get permission from the people’s elected representatives.
The Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to declare war. But Trump launched the Iran war on his own without Congress’ involvement. Which was a doozy of a political mistake: Convincing Congress to go to war generally involves persuading the bulk of the American public that war is necessary. It’s a good way to get everybody on the bandwagon and present a unified front to the world.
Instead: Americans didn’t get a say in this war. Alford expects them to make sacrifices anyway.
Good luck with that.
We’re about to find out how much pain Americans are willing to tolerate.
After Alford’s Friday morning interview, oil prices spiked even higher over the weekend — above $100 a barrel.
That will make gasoline more expensive. Fertilizer costs will also likely spike, creating a new round of problems for Kansas and Missouri farmers. Food prices could follow.
We’re all going to have to tighten our belts.
The irony is that Trump won the 2024 election largely because of voter concerns about rising costs in America. This war seems likely to exacerbate those concerns. Alford — on the ballot in this year’s midterm elections — appears to be uncomfortably aware of that fact.
“There is a political component” to the war, he acknowledged on NewsNation. “We have the midterms coming up. The Democrats have tried to make it about affordability. That will certainly play into that.”
It certainly will.
That suggests, though, that Alford’s case for “sacrifice” isn’t really about defeating Iran or decapitating the Iranian regime. It’s about convincing voters to leave Republicans in control of Congress this November — even though the GOP president’s actions are making American lives more difficult and expensive.
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 1:14 PM.
