Just one in four Americans approve of the US strikes on Iran – which killed the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday – and about half think the president is too willing to resort to military action, according to the results of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of the Reuters news agency.
In particular, 27% of respondents were in favor of military action against Iran, while 43% expressed their opposition and 29% appeared undecided. Almost nine out of ten citizens said they had been informed about the strikes on Iran, which began on Saturday morning.
56% of Americans think Trump – who has ordered attacks on Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria in recent months – is too willing to resort to military action to advance US interests. This opinion was shared by 87% of respondents who declared themselves Democratic voters. 23% of those who declared themselves Republican voters and 60% of those who did not reveal a party preference answered accordingly.
The poll, conducted Saturday after the military operation against Iran began, polled 1,282 Americans from across the country and has a margin of error of ±3%.
Polls and political risk for Republicans
These findings reflect a clear climate of wariness in American public opinion, at a time when Donald Trump’s decision to launch attacks against Iran — in cooperation with Israel — turns a previously hypothetical debate into a political reality. As Politico points out in its analysis, the president is now called upon to determine how far his supporters are willing to follow him on an issue that is already dividing his alliance.
Only 50% of Trump voters in 2024 supported military action in a POLITICO poll last month, while 30% opposed. These disagreements, combined with largely unified opposition from Democrats, meant that Americans generally did not want an attack on Iran.
In a January POLITICO poll, nearly half of Americans, 45 percent, said the United States should not take military action in Iran, while less than a third, 31 percent, said it should. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last weekend also found widespread public opposition to military action in Iran.
Politico: The stakes are high for Republicans
The stakes are especially high for the Republican Party, which already faces a difficult midterm election landscape where even small departures from the 2024 winning coalition could have huge consequences.
Part of the challenge for Trump is that support for military intervention in Iran has been strongest among Trump supporters — and much weaker outside that circle.
61% of Trump voters who self-identify as “MAGA Republicans” said they support military action, according to a POLITICO poll conducted from Jan. 16-19, as Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Iran, but a direct attack remained hypothetical. That’s far higher than the 42% of Trump voters who don’t identify as “MAGA” who said the same.
That leaves Trump navigating an evolving issue where support within his coalition — at least before the attacks — was real but not overwhelming, and where overall public opposition outweighed support.
