NC State political scientist Steven Greene on the war in Iran and NC’s latest political earthquake

Even before his fateful and thus far largely unpopular decision to go to war with Iran in late February, both President Donald Trump and his party had been encountering some significant political headwinds as a result of an array of controversial policy actions. Now, with the war dragging on without much explanation or any clear plan for a conclusion, and rising prices for fuel and related items hitting Americans in their pocketbooks, standard political wisdom would predict a good chance of big Republican electoral defeats this fall. That said, the fall elections are still seven months off, so how accurate are such predictions likely to be? Recently, to get a better gauge on where things stand, what people are thinking and where the president is likely playing with political fire as a result of some of the approaches he’s taken, Newsline sat down for a two-part conversation with one of our state’s most experienced and astute political observers, NC State University Professor of Political Science, Steven Greene. In Part One of our recent conversation with Greene, we discussed President Trump’s deeply controversial decision to attack Iran, its impacts here at home, and how both matters are playing out in domestic politics as we look forward to the 2026 elections. In Part Two of our conversation, we turned our attention to the North Carolina political scene and, in particular, the massive earthquake that just hit the state legislature as a result of the primary defeat of the state’s most powerful politician – longtime Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. Click here to listen to the full interview with NC State University political scientist Steven Greene.

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NC State political scientist Steven Greene on the war in Iran and NC’s latest political earthquake is an episode from NC Policy Watch by NC Policy Watch.

This episode is 19:09 long.

This episode was published on Apr 7, 2026.

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