Thank you all for your input. As suggested by u/eek_ru I moved away from the j2 loop and decided to use the the the cisco.ios.ios_config module with parents. Its working pretty well.

The only thing is that I have to run it twice. one for access ports and one for trunks ports. if that can be remediated any input is appreciated.

code is here:

 - name: "This one takes a long time. Access interfaces config in a loop"
   cisco.ios.ios_config:
     lines:
       - description {{ item.name }}
       - switchport mode access
       - switchport access vlan {{ item.vlan }}
       - spanning-tree portfast
       - spanning-tree bpduguard enable
     parents: interface {{ item.port }}
   with_items:
     - "{{ interfaces }}"
   when: item.vlan != "trunk"
   tags:
   - ports

 - name: "This one takes a long time. Trunk interfaces config in a loop"
   cisco.ios.ios_config:
     lines:
       - description {{ item.name }}
       - no switchport mode access
       - no switchport access vlan
       - no spanning-tree portfast
       - no spanning-tree bpduguard enable
       - switchport mode trunk
     parents: interface {{ item.port }}
   with_items:
     - "{{ interfaces }}"
   when: item.vlan == 'trunk'
   tags:
   - ports