WASHINGTON, July 27 - Support for the military campaign against Iran has declined to roughly one in three Americans, according to a recent national poll, marking the weakest public backing since the fighting entered its fifth month. The survey, conducted Friday through Sunday, also showed a modest rise in President Donald Trump’s overall approval rating to 37%, three points higher than last month when his approval had been tied for the lowest of his presidency.
The poll found widespread skepticism about the administration’s explanation of its objectives. Some 69% of respondents said Trump has not "clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran," a view that included about four in 10 self-identified Republicans.
Administration statements on the conflict have included several different emphases, with the president at various times saying the purposes include supporting Iranians seeking to remove their leaders, degrading Iran’s ballistic-missile capabilities, and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales pushed back against placing weight on poll results in setting policy. Wales said Trump will not make decisions based on "fluid opinion polls" and reiterated the administration’s stated priority of preventing Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon. "What matters most to the American people is having a commander in chief who takes bold action to keep them safe," she said.
Public approval of the campaign has remained under 40% since U.S. and Israeli strikes began on February 28 - a contrast to polling seen in the early months of some other recent conflicts. The current low level of support comes as the war has had measurable costs at home and abroad.
To date, 18 American service members have been reported killed in the fighting. The conflict has also resulted in thousands of fatalities in Iran and in Lebanon, where Iran-aligned forces have engaged Israeli troops.
Domestically, the war has been linked to higher gasoline prices, a direct economic effect noted by many voters. Nationwide average gasoline prices are now just over $4 a gallon, compared with about $3 a gallon immediately before the strikes on February 28. That increase has placed additional financial strain on consumers and, according to some political strategists, heightened pressure on the president’s party.
"This puts pressure on the party in a myriad of ways, all of them bad," said Alex Conant, a Republican political strategist who previously served as a White House spokesman. Conant noted that White House officials had signaled the need to "win economic arguments," and said it is difficult to do so when attention is clearly focused on foreign policy.
Voters interviewed reflected the uncertainty and frustration expressed in the poll. "It’s not clear why we started a war with them. I have no idea," said Alex Womack, a retired turbine repair specialist from Stockbridge, Georgia, who described himself as a Republican in part because of his approval of how Republican President George H.W. Bush handled the 1991 Gulf War. Womack, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from that earlier conflict, said his support for Trump had waned because of the current war. "I don’t think he’s doing very well, personally," he said.
Another respondent, Rhyan Anderson, an independent from Fairburn, Georgia, who voted for Trump in 2024, said the president should prioritize domestic issues. Anderson, who works two jobs in security and data collection and who voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, said: "My biggest thing is just focus on the people who are actually in the country. I know we have allies and things like that, but there’s a lot of people here that really need help."
Political ramifications of the conflict are evident among independent voters. The survey found independent registered voters favored the Democratic congressional candidate over the Republican by 36% to 20%. Those same independents also preferred Democrats over Republicans on questions about economic policy.
Trump entered his 2024 campaign with promises to avoid prolonged foreign entanglements, saying he would keep the United States out of enduring conflicts. Early in the current campaign he estimated the Iran engagement would last "four to five weeks." He has also rejected comparisons of the present fighting to longer-running wars, including the Vietnam War.
Internal tracking by the polling effort shows shifting levels of public support over time. Since mid-March the survey has asked whether respondents support or oppose military strikes on Iran; at that point 37% said they supported the strikes. On the day the war began, 27% had said they supported action while 29% chose "unsure" when given that option.
The latest survey collected responses online from 1,246 U.S. adults and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Summary of findings:
- Roughly one in three Americans now back the U.S. campaign against Iran.
- Sixty-nine percent say the president has not clearly explained U.S. goals in the conflict.
- The president’s overall approval rose modestly to 37% in the most recent poll.