Oil Prices Return to Triple Digits: Trump's 'America First' Dilemma at Dallas Midterm Convention

DALLAS — The Republican Party has staked its midterm political fortunes on one man: U.S. President Trump. According to Al Jazeera, the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas was designed to put Trump at center stage in order to defend the party's majorities in the House and Senate. Yet on the very day Trump delivered his keynote address on Wednesday, the global benchmark Brent crude price broke above $100 a barrel for the first time since July — a stark reminder to delegates that the war against Iran, launched by Trump jointly with Israel on Feb. 28 during his second term, is now striking back at the "America First" promise in the form of surging gasoline prices.

Curt Eissinger, a 27-year-old electrician who traveled to the convention from Fargo, North Dakota, articulated a contradiction that many American voters are struggling to swallow: "As far as I can see, I can't see how the war in Iran helps our country. If the Iran war is justified, I'd be willing to pay higher gas prices, but I haven't seen that justification yet." He was equally perplexed by the tightening U.S.-Israeli alignment: "If helping Israel in a way helps us, that's great... but it has to benefit us first."

The chasm between the "America First" slogan and deep overseas military entanglement is being transmitted directly to the gas pump. A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that only about a quarter of Americans believe the war is worth fighting. Multiple polls consistently show that opposition is especially strong among independent voters, and that the cost of living has supplanted issues such as immigration as voters' top concern.

Under electoral pressure, Trump reversed course on Wednesday as he left the White House for Dallas, saying the war would last "a little bit longer than the midterms" and accusing Iran of deliberately dragging things out to sway the election: "They're desperately trying to influence the election so we can get a bunch of weak guys up there and let them have a nuclear weapon." He predicted the war would end "immediately" after the vote. That stance stands in clear contradiction with his repeated earlier claims that the war would wrap up right after the midterms, undermining the GOP's plan to mobilize voters around a "quick victory" narrative.

More awkward still is the core rationale for going to war. The Trump administration cited the destruction of Iran's nuclear program as a key justification for the military campaign, but Tehran has long denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons. According to military analysts cited by Al Jazeera, destroying Iran's nuclear program would require large-scale ground forces — meaning that the current airstrikes and maritime operations are unlikely to achieve the stated strategic objective. The Trump administration has therefore shifted its practical focus to safeguarding shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran's influence persists.

Republican delegates at the convention were hardly united on the issue. Bijay Dixit, a 59-year-old photographer from Houston, endorses Trump's immigration and economic agenda but candidly acknowledges a "miscalculation" on Iran — an underestimation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps's ability to strike back — although he still accepts the administration's overall framing of the war, which packages every conflict since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and lays the blame on Tehran. Helen Weinert, 65, a small-business owner and local Republican chair from Maryland, likened the convention to a "high school pep rally" and conceded that the war could produce political blowback: "It's a tough one."

John Russell, 55, of Rockford, Illinois, a member of the "Front Row Joes" group that regularly appears at Trump rallies, brushed off the oil price increase as a "little fluctuation" but insisted that "this war has to be fought. We cannot let them have nukes," and predicted the Dallas convention would "energize the base" and pull some independents back into the GOP column.

Whatever the outcome of the November vote, one strategic reality is already on the table: the political and economic costs of America's deeper Middle East entanglement are being passed on to ordinary families with every gallon of gasoline, and Republicans will keep having to answer for the war's justification.