Trump Jr. privately opposed his father's Iran war, Atlantic says

Donald Trump Jr. opposed his father's decision to go to war with Iran from the outset and told the president so privately, The Atlantic reported on Oct. 20, even as he said nothing publicly about it.

Two people who have spoken directly with Trump Jr. about the conflict told the magazine that he has repeatedly criticized the military campaign in private conversations. He made his opposition known to his father when the fighting began. He has long been skeptical of foreign intervention and believed the United States should not enter another war in the Middle East.

A person close to the president's son told The Atlantic that Trump Jr. has kept those views to himself because he "would never publicly break with his dad on an issue like this." The same person said no one who knows Trump Jr. would be surprised by his personal views on the war.

The war in its eighth month

The war began on Feb. 28 and has run for nearly eight months with no end in sight, The Daily Beast reported.

The White House did not address Trump Jr.'s reported opposition. An official said in a statement that "Iran has been decimated, and one way or the other, the conflict in Iran will be over very soon." The statement did not say on what terms the fighting would end.

Trump endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct. 18, days before Israel's Oct. 27 elections, and said Iran had been systematically destroyed and that the two countries would soon finish the job. The two leaders have been discussing a resumption of strikes on Iran as the deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz persists. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled to Israel the next day and held a secret meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Axios reported.

Reuters reported Oct. 20, citing three senior Iranian officials and an Iranian insider, that Tehran expects another round of American and Israeli strikes rather than talks. One official said Iran is preparing for renewed attacks, not for a deal with the United States to end the war. "The clerical establishment is determined not to give Trump a political victory," the official said.

Approval at a record low

A Reuters-Ipsos poll released Oct. 19 put Trump's overall job approval at 31 percent, a record low. A Pew Research Center poll released Oct. 8 found that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of the way he is handling the war in Iran.

Approval of the president's handling of the conflict had already fallen from 33 percent in March to 26 percent, including a 13-point drop among Republicans, according to polling cited on Sept. 22 by CNN's political director, David Chalian. "This war is nothing short of a political disaster for Donald Trump," Chalian said.

Domestic fuel costs have added to the administration's troubles. Average gasoline prices had been above $4 a gallon on a record 158 days this year as of Oct. 14, according to GasBuddy, following supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. California's average stood at $6.26 that day, AAA said.

The price surge pushed U.S. inflation to a three-year high of 4.2 percent in May. Energy costs tied to the Strait of Hormuz disruptions have continued to weigh on household budgets since.

Republicans who broke publicly

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has publicly urged Trump to "wrap it up" in Iran, calls he was making as far back as July.

Other figures in the president's coalition have broken with him over the war, The Daily Beast reported, among them Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson, both described as former loyalists. The outlet also counted Vice President JD Vance, who praised Trump for not starting any new wars during his first term.

Those critics, the outlet reported, have questioned why a president elected on an America First platform joined Israel in a conflict that has worsened the affordability crisis for millions of Americans and sent U.S. service members into another faraway war.

Trump Jr. has not joined those public critics. His objections were raised in private, according to The Atlantic.

Trump Jr. was a close friend of Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder who was assassinated and who for years had cautioned Trump against starting a major conflict with Iran, according to The Daily Beast. Kirk was killed in September 2025, months before the war began.

"Don Jr. is the most MAGA of them all," a source familiar with the president's son's opposition to the Iran war told The Atlantic.

Trump Jr.'s public record on Iran

Trump Jr. has not spoken against the war in public, and he remains one of his father's most visible supporters. He has argued for years against U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts, a position that tracks with the America First wing of his father's coalition.

On April 13, 2024, in the final months of the Biden administration and as Iran launched attacks on Israel, Trump Jr. wrote a post on X about the prospect of a war with the country.

Remember when they said Trump would get us into a full-blown war with Iran? Times like these should make us all realize how lucky we were to have Trump, his strength and his resolve.

The post went up nearly two years before his father launched the campaign against Iran. The Atlantic highlighted it in its Oct. 20 report.

The accounts given to The Atlantic did not describe how the president responded to his son's objections, or say how often the two discussed the war after its opening days. It is unclear whether the disagreement has strained the relationship between them.

A spokesperson for Trump Jr. declined to comment to The Atlantic, and the White House did not respond to questions about his position. He has been a key part of the family-led political team of his father's second term.

Before the Nov. 3 vote

Voter backlash over the war and the resulting rise in gas prices is expected to hurt Republicans in the Nov. 3 midterms, The Daily Beast reported. In a Politico poll, just 10 percent of undecided voters said a $1 drop in gas prices would make them more likely to back Republicans, and 29 percent said it would make no real difference.

The stalemate is likely deliberate and aimed at influencing the November midterm elections, an Iranian economist and political analyst cited by Reuters said. "Iran is influencing the US election without taking any unlawful action," he said.

The administration maintains that the campaign has severely weakened Iran and that the fighting will end soon. Neither Trump Jr. nor the White House has directly addressed the reported disagreement.