Follow us on social

google cta
Trump hasn't bombed Iran yet. He must be reading these polls.

Trump hasn't bombed Iran yet. He must be reading these polls.

American public opinion is largely against a new war with Tehran. If that isn't staying the president's hand, it should.

Analysis | Middle East
google cta

When the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003, that war had 72% support among Americans, according to Gallup.

If Donald Trump now wants to start a U.S. war with Iran, the president would not remotely enjoy that level of support. He doesn’t even have half of it. Scratch that, not even a quarter of Americans want him to bomb Iran today.

A SSRS/University of Maryland poll asked participants earlier this month: “Do you favor or oppose the United States initiating an attack on Iran under the current circumstances?” Only 21% favored, 49% opposed, and 30% answered “I don’t know.”

Republicans were the most favorable toward war with 40%, but 25% of GOP voters said they oppose it, and 35% answered “I don’t know.” So there is not even a consensus in Trump’s own party. It’s split. Only 6% of Democrats favor an attack on Tehran at this time. 21% of independents favored intervention.

The survey, which was taken between February 5-9 is not a one-off, however.An Economist/YouGov poll taken the week before revealed that between January 30 and February 2, 48% to 28% of Americans are more likely to oppose than support the U.S. taking military action in Iran.

This was after the Iranian government was cracking down on protesters, and a chorus of war proponents here in the United States were demanding that Washington intervene militarily to protect them. When poll respondents were asked if they supported or opposed the U.S. bombing Iran over its treatment of protesters, that number rose four points to 52% opposing, with 25% supporting and 23% “not sure.”

A Quinnipiac University survey taken two weeks before the Economist/YouGov poll also asked if the U.S. should intervene to protect protesters in Iran. This poll was taken a week after Trump said that the U.S. was “locked and loaded” if Iran killed peaceful protesters. Between January 8 and 12, 70% believed the U.S. should not become involved in Iran, 18% favored U.S. intervention, and 12% had “no opinion.”

Let’s jump back even further, after Trump ordered strikes on Iran in late June. At the time David Vine reported on Responsible Statecraft that “polling both before and immediately after Trump launched attacks on Iran showed broad opposition to U.S. involvement in Israel’s unprovoked war including among Trump’s base. Most strikingly, 85% of people surveyed nationwide said they don’t want the U.S. to be at war with Iran, while only 5% do, according to YouGov polling conducted in the wake of the bombing.”

These numbers are not a good starting point for support should Trump decide to go to war.

On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2013, 53% of Americans saw that war as a mistake, according to Gallup. On the 20th anniversary of that war, 61% of Americans believed the U.S. did not make the right decision by invading Iraq, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll.

The Bush-Cheney administration drove a hard propaganda campaign to get Americans behind its foreign policy agenda, something that worked, at least in the beginning. Over 20 years later, recognizing that the Iraq war was a mistake has become something of an American consensus, even in GOP presidential primaries just 13 years after the invasion led by a Republican president.

Does Donald Trump plan to make another colossal blunder in Iran? The same people who thought the Iraq war was a good idea (and still think this) are urging him to.

George W. Bush enjoyed strong support in 2003, and it turned out disastrous, both in the aftermath of the invasion and for his own popularity. Unlike Team Bush, current Iran war advocates are trying to drum up support, but their messaging behind bombing Iran, centering mostly on the protection of Iranian protesters (though that has shifted back some to Iran's nuclear program), is shown by these polling numbers to be a flop.

Donald Trump has a choice to make: The Iraq war is today considered one of the dumbest wars in American history. Is the current American president looking to up the ante with Iran?

Most Americans are not if the polls are any indication.

So far, Trump has stayed his hand. Even when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Wednesday, the president insisted he wants to keep talking to Iran. Public opinion and his own popularity must still matter to Trump. He must be aware of the writing on the wall.


Top photo credit: Members of the media raise their hands to ask questions as U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) hold a joint press conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 29, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Analysis | Middle East
china trump
President Donald Trump announces the creation of a critical minerals reserve during an event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, February 2, 2026. Trump announced the creation of “Project Vault,” a rare earth stockpile to lower reliance on China for rare earths and other resources. Photo by Bonnie Cash/Pool/Sipa USA

Trump vs. his China hawks

Asia-Pacific

In the year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, China hawks have started to panic. Leading lights on U.S. policy toward Beijing now warn that Trump is “barreling toward a bad bargain” with the Chinese Communist Party. Matthew Pottinger, a key architect of Trump’s China policy in his first term, argues that the president has put Beijing in a “sweet spot” through his “baffling” policy decisions.

Even some congressional Republicans have criticized Trump’s approach, particularly following his decision in December to allow the sale of powerful Nvidia AI chips to China. “The CCP will use these highly advanced chips to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance,” argued Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), who chairs the influential Select Committee on Competition with China.

keep reading Show less
Is America still considered part of the 'Americas'?
Top image credit: bluestork/shutterstock.com

Is America still considered part of the 'Americas'?

Latin America

On January 7, the White House announced its plans to withdraw from 66 international bodies whose work it had deemed inconsistent with U.S. national interests.

While many of these organizations were international in nature, three of them were specific to the Americas — the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, and the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The decision came on the heels of the Dominican Republic postponing the X Summit of the Americas last year following disagreements over who would be invited and ensuing boycotts.

keep reading Show less
After shuttering USAID, Trump launches new foreign aid strategy
Top photo credit: Abuja, Nigeria, March 06, 2021: African Medical Doctor giving consultation and treatment in a rural clinic. (Shutterstock/Oni Abimbola)

After shuttering USAID, Trump launches new foreign aid strategy

Washington Politics

Almost exactly one year ago, the swift dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) got underway with a public statement issued by the State Department.

At the start of July 2025, the State Department officially absorbed what was left of the storied agency. A few short months later, to fill the USAID-shaped hole in America’s soft-power projection abroad, the Trump administration launched an $11 billion plan to provide foreign health assistance.

keep reading Show less
google cta
Want more of our stories on Google?
Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.