President Trump doesn’t consider economic concerns in Iran talks
President Donald Trump told reporters that the economic situation of Americans is not factored into his decisions regarding Iran.
WIGGINS, Colo. – Amy Van Dine sat behind the register at Stubbs Liquor Store, staring out the window at the red and green gas price signs. It seems like it’s going up in price by the minute every day, she said.
The price was $4.34 per gallon, about 50% higher than the price in those areas when President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.
“I used to fill a tank for $36. Now I can get half a tank for $36,” said Van Dien, 42.
Co-worker Tonya Bruyette said she wonders where her money went when it’s time to buy groceries. “It’s not on the table, it’s in a tank.”
Like most people in and around Wiggins, a rural town of 1,400 people in northeastern Colorado, Van Duyne and Bruyette are fervent supporters of the president, who won surrounding Morgan County by a 49-point margin in 2024.
Nationally, Trump’s political fortunes appear to be in decline. The president’s war with Iran has pushed fuel prices across the U.S. to more than $4.50 a gallon, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found nearly eight in 10 Americans say the president is to blame for soaring gas prices.
President Trump was asked this week whether his people’s economic hardship was a motivator for reaching a deal with Tehran. “I don’t think about the economic situation of Americans,” he replied. “The only thing that matters when you talk about Iran is that they cannot have nuclear weapons.”
The Democratic Party of Japan took this comment as evidence that the administration has lost touch with an anxious public. The issue has long been one of Trump’s political strengths, with just 30% of American adults supporting his handling of the economy as of a May Reuters/Ipsos poll.
But in 20 recent interviews along Colorado’s Highway 52, a two-lane blacktop road punctuated by grain elevators, feedlots and oil pumpjacks, Trump voters echoed the president’s logic.
In Morgan and Weld counties, which have not voted Democratic in presidential elections since 1964, voters are willing to pay more for gas if it eliminates the Iranian nuclear threat. Energy prices have also skyrocketed under President Joe Biden, many said.
Some reluctantly supported Trump out of disgust with the Democratic Party. Others expressed belief the president has a plan to cut costs. It was a testament to Trump’s enduring personal ties to his base that he was able to weather multiple crises over his two terms in office.
“He seems to hear us,” Bruyette said. “He’s fighting for us.”
“I’m willing to sacrifice.”
About 40 miles southwest of Wiggins, Jim Miller was elbow-deep in the engine of a disabled Dodge pickup truck.
Miller, a 65-year-old former commodities broker who grew up in the liberal city of Boulder and now lives in tiny Prospect Valley, considers himself “half hippie, half cowboy.”
He said it was worth enduring the temporary pain of rising gasoline prices to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Miller recalled stories of American resilience during World War II, when supplies were rationed and households lived on what little they had.
“Like everyone else, I’m struggling, but I’m willing to make some sacrifices,” Miller said. “The will to sacrifice has completely disappeared in this country.”
In the unincorporated town of Roggen was Mike Urbanowitz, a 66-year-old trader with multiple college degrees. His agricultural cooperative transports 150 truckloads of grain every day.
He voted for Trump three times but, like many people interviewed by Reuters, considers himself a political independent and said he has almost as little faith in the Republican Party as his Democratic opponents.
Gasoline prices are hurting the country’s industry, he said, and Trump was “naive” to think he could quickly fix the problem. He predicted prices would remain high into the fall, even if there was progress in the stalled peace talks between the United States and Iran.
However, he preferred the status quo to the Democratic Party, which he believed was moving toward “full-fledged socialism.”
“I voted for Trump because the alternative is so bad,” he said.
Inflation spikes again in April amid Iran war
Inflation rose to the highest level since 2023 in April as high oil prices stemming from the Iran war pushed up prices at filling stations and affected supply chains.
“Everyone participates”
In Fort Morgan, Lexis Seabrands, 22, lay face down on a table inside the Bad Medicine Inc. tattoo parlor, smiling as she fought through pain in her left calf. There were images of warrants, stagecoaches, and other Western-themed designs.
Siebrantz, a gay man who recently became a Christian, once considered himself a Democrat, but because of the hypocrisy of liberals around identity politics, he started considering himself a Republican around 2022 and voted for Trump.
She believed that war with Iran was inevitable. “Someday something is going to happen, whether Iran did something to us or we did something to Iran.”
Sitting next to her daughter was 49-year-old Jill Seabrands. She grew up politically independent, but later became drawn to the Republican Party.
She said she doesn’t like rising gas prices, but she’s even more afraid of the possibility of Iran becoming nuclear-armed. “This war is exactly the situation we are in,” she said. “People just have to give it time.”
Did she have red lines? Is there anything that could shake her confidence in President Trump’s handling of the war and the economy?
“No,” she said. “I’m all in.”
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Jesse Messner Hage and David Gaffen)
