Trump’s Iran war stirs anger in Maga country Kentucky | Kentucky

When it comes to politics in Appalachian Kentucky, one of the first things you’ll be told is that the people defy easy categorization.

There are devout churchgoers who say that Jesus’ message of helping others is fundamentally socialism, and that’s a good thing. There are gun owners who yearn for a universal health care system.

Home to shuttered coal mines and steel plants, Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains remains one of the most deprived regions in America. Unlike many other Republican-leaning parts of the country, there are few businesses or industries close to the military in its hills and hills.

With two of 13 U.S. service members killed in the war against Iran so far in Kentucky, decisions in Washington over what many say is an unnecessary conflict are hitting hard. And while Donald Trump won 65% of the vote in Kentucky in the 2024 election, there are growing signs that the conflict is fueling growing discontent there.

Early estimates suggest that the first 12 days of the war against Iran cost the American taxpayer approximately $16.5 billion. An estimated 40 percent of Eastern Kentucky children grow up in households where incomes are below the federal poverty level. In July 2022, flooding caused by heavy rains resulted in the deaths of 38 people in eastern Kentucky.

Meanwhile, thousands of eastern Kentucky residents have seen Snap and Medicare support cut by the Trump administration, and rising utility prices have pushed them back into poverty.

“This war, without Congressional approval, is a slap in the face to rural Kentucky residents and my neighbors. There are so many things this money could be better allocated for…especially after all the cuts that have been made, it’s really hard to swallow this pill,” said McKenna Brashear, interim president of the Young Democrats of Perry County, who is from the small community of Viper.

“Our schools rely heavily on government assistance. [of the Iran war spending] could greatly increase an educator’s ability to procure school supplies. Rising gas prices will only make it harder for those on welfare or those just struggling to make ends meet. »

But some say attacking Iran is a necessary action.

Brandon La Voie, a lifelong Democrat who voted for Trump in 2024 and wrote in Bernie Sanders four years earlier, is among those who doesn’t fit into the typical Democratic-versus-Republican rhetoric.

“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” he said. “I align myself with what a Democrat is supposed to be.”

Despite voting for Trump two years ago largely after a child in nearby Morehead was killed by an undocumented immigrant, he “can’t buy into the bigotry of it all.”

Likewise, his views on the war against Iran are also nuanced.

“People who sentence their children to death… We must intervene. We cannot protest against the regime [in Iran]”, he claims. The Iranian government is believed to have killed up to 30,000 people during the crackdown on anti-government protesters that began in late December.

“Do I think [the war] is this a good idea? I think that was the only idea, unfortunately. He says that weakening or eliminating the Iranian regime now is preferable to a bigger war in the future that could see his sons drafted to fight in the Middle East.

“Do I think the money spent on the Tomahawk [missiles] could it be spent elsewhere? Absolutely, we need community centers…this money could be used to develop the community. But what if there is a greater evil next to you,” he says, referring to the Iranian regime.

“While you spend this money on community centers, this evil continues to grow, and your sons and grandsons will have to [pay the price].”

Several Kentucky politicians have criticized the attacks and the price Kentucky families are paying for them. During his visit to a Kentucky packing plant on March 11, Trump did not acknowledge that commonwealth soldiers had died in the ongoing conflict.

His failure to spend time with the family of serviceman Sgt. Benjamin Pennington of Glendale also drew criticism from Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor seen by some as a leading contender to be the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominee.

It is telling that Democrats are not the only ones accusing Trump of fomenting war.

Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, recently said: “I don’t think this [war] It will be a good thing for the Republican Party if oil and gas prices are high and the war hangs over our heads for several months.”

One of Trump’s biggest critics on the Republican side is Thomas Massie, the Kentucky representative whose district includes much of northern Carter County. Massie believes the war “will radicalize a new generation of terrorists” and told members of Congress on March 4, “We owe our military a clear mission, and American families in my district want to know how this will help them pay for their groceries.”

At a time when federal cuts to food and other aid programs are hitting the region harder than much of the rest of the country, attempts in recent years to restore jobs in heavy industry have failed.

On Industrial Parkway, about two miles from the only highway through eastern Kentucky, is a wide, flat expanse of land with tall grass and white PVC pipes poking out of the ground. It’s the site of a $2 billion aluminum plant that was supposed to bring manufacturing back to the region.

Dozens of local students spent years studying to learn the skills needed to operate the plant. The jobs were supposed to pay workers $65,000 plus benefits.

But in 2022, the project was essentially abandoned. Beshear called it “the worst and most questionable economic development deal in Kentucky history.”

It’s this kind of betrayal that, residents say, helps populists like Trump connect with Eastern Kentucky residents.

In Perry County, where per capita income is less than $30,000 and Trump won four times as many votes in the 2024 election as Kamala Harris, a Democrat, McKenna Brashear says disappointment fueled by economic losses and other struggles has driven residents to seek refuge in religion.

And when it comes to the war against Iran, which the Trump administration has repeatedly framed in a religious context, Eastern Kentucky’s preponderance of evangelical Christianity, which sees a war in the Middle East as a sign of the end times, is not unpopular.

“Religion helps shape opinions about war,” Brashear says.

For The Way, who runs a restoration business that sees him and a crew of workers repairing abandoned properties, the culture of taking material resources and people from this often forgotten part of America is as old as it is troubling.

“Extraction is something we’re used to; my grandfather was extracted from here to serve in the Vietnam War. He was exposed to extreme amounts of Agent Orange and ended up dying from it,” he says.

“We are being diverted.”