Dan Mitchinson: US Correspondent on Trump's 'falling' public support amidst Iran conflict

According to a new PBS poll public support for Donald Trump is in decline as more than half of US citizens oppose the war in Iran. 

Dan Mitchinson spoke to Heather du Plessis-Allan about the questions arising surrounding the progression of the war, including the possibility of robot soldiers and security risks at the Oscars. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchinson US correspondence with US Now. Hello Dan, Hi, Heather, Right, So,
what's the public opinion of Donald Trump doing?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Then? It's falling. Actually, a majority of Americans are disapproving
how he's managing this conflict. This is according to a
new PBS poll that's just out. You've got Ran Paul
who's a Republican out of Kentucky, who says the whole
thing could erode support not only for the President but
for the GOP, which, of course they're concerned about the

(00:28):
midterms coming up later this year. And the survey also
found that fifty six percent of Americans opposed military action
in Iran and only well forty four percent supported.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's divided along Is it still divided along the old
party lines, as in the Democrats hated in the Republicans
love it.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, for the most part, I think, But I think
you're getting a few Republicans now that are siding with Well,
they won't say it publicly. They're saying that, you know,
we're deciding on this, but are saying that maybe we
went into quickly. And I think whether public opinion shifts
this could depend largely on how quickly this whole thing ends.
President Trump says it's getting set to be wrapped up.

(01:07):
But I think it's more turning into a domestic political
liability for the GOP than it is for the Democrats,
and will certainly give them something to target Republicans going
into the midterms.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
The thing that is probably going to push public opinion
in such a way that it would cause him to
end it prematurely would be what it's doing to the
price of fuel for you people. How's that going?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh yeah, that's not good. Right now. California is paying
the most in the country for gallon of gas, which
is something around I think maybe five seventy gallon five
dollars and seventy cents. You've got airline fuel which is
almost tripled in cost right now, which as you know,
with Air New Zealand over there and our airlines over

(01:50):
here right now, they've already started to raise the fairs,
and of course that's happening with trains and shipping and
the grocery goods are going up because they're having to
pay more to transport those as well. So that's where
it's really going to hurt Republicans right now, because honestly,
more Americans are afraid of how they're going to be
able to afford to pay everything with these prices going
up and wages staying the same.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
You guys going to use robot soldiers.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, if you mean me personally, no, although I think
that's kind of cool. But the militaries are working on
these AI soldiers for years and they've got these up
and running right now like you would see in a
sci fi movie and the pictures that we've seen, and
it's like a combination of RoboCop or that evil robot
I can't think of the name. It was in Disney's
movie The Black Hole. But it's very evil looking, it's

(02:37):
very scary. It's jet black steel, it's got a tinted
glass advisor. It's called the Phantom MK one. And the
goal is to send more of these into battle than
humans and have these robots carry any type of weapons
that a soldier can. And in the last couple of
weeks these robots have been sent at least a couple
to Ukraine. Initially this was going to be for sort
of recon support, but they're using them to try and

(02:58):
deal with explosives too. Real humans won't be put in
so much danger, So.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
What are they doing, by the way, about the oscars
and security.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, well, you know, this is the biggest TV event,
along with the Super Bowl that we have over here
in the States every year, and there's a lot of
money writing on this, and there's a lot of security
on this too. Especially the FBI warned California law enforcement
and our Governor Gavenusam about the possibility of of a
drone attack by iron targeting the West coast. So they're

(03:29):
rolling out more security this year. It's not very visible
at this point. The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and
Sciences that puts on this event is not is not
saying anything publicly about it. But Governor Newsom came out
and said he's in touch with the FBI and with
security agencies and said he's guaranteed that everything that can
be done will be done. But we'll see if this
is going to mean fewer of the big name celebrities

(03:51):
will show up for the event, or if they just
feel confident and say, hey, we're going to go with
the flow.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Thanks Dan, appreciate it. You enjoy your weekend. That's Dan Mitchinson.
You is correspondent. By way, it's being reported that Timothy
Shaller may may have lost his opera his oscar because
of comments about opera and the ballet, and it just
wouldn't be cool to give it to him.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio