A majority of registered voters disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling the situation in Iran and believe the US should not take military action against the country, according to a new NBC News poll.
Although support for the White House is largely polarized along party lines, a small but significant slice of Republicans is unhappy with the decision to launch a war in the Middle East. There was also a marked divide between younger and older voters in the early days of the attack.
Fifty-four percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, 41% approve, and another 5% say they don’t have an opinion or aren’t sure. A similar share, 52%, say the US should not take military action, while 41% say it should and 7% say they are not sure.
The poll provides an early snapshot of how American voters are digesting a major new military effort launched by a president who campaigned against past “endless wars” as he seeks to return to the White House in 2024.
“It’s a lower level of support than most major military actions we’ve seen,” said Bill McInturf of Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican pollster who conducted the survey along with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.
“Attitudes will change in this country based on the results,” McInturff added. “If the results are bad things can get worse and if there is a consistent, good result here things can certainly get better.”
An NBC News poll from early 2002 to early 2003 found most Americans said the US should take military action to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
In October 2001, in the early stages of the strike in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks, 87% said they supported President George W. Bush’s approach to the war on terror and approved airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In both cases, public opinion turned over the years, with a clear majority of Americans ultimately saying the conflicts weren’t worth it.
A new poll began testing sentiment about Iran’s strikes on Saturday, hours after the US government announced the start of its campaign and it is in the field amid a series of major new developments — including news that the strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and killed six US soldiers. Get out of the Middle East.
The Trump administration has indicated that strikes will continue to increase in the coming days, and further developments could bring additional shifts in public sentiment, as Republicans and Democrats in Congress debate the implications and potential outcomes of the US undertaking its most significant military action in years.
The president and his allies have argued that the strikes are essential to protect Americans from “imminent threats,” accusing Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon and failing to deter the country through diplomatic negotiations. Many Democrats in Congress blasted the move, calling the president a war of choice, not necessity.
The results clearly show partisan polarization on the issue: A majority of Democrats, 89%, say the US should not have struck Iran. Among independents, 58% agree.
Republicans overall have the most support for strikes: 77% say the US should have struck Iran, while 15% disagree. But there is a significant gap between Republicans who consider themselves aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and those who do not.
90% of self-identified MAGA-aligned Republicans support strikes, while only 5% think they shouldn’t initiate them. But Republicans who don’t see themselves as part of MAGA are more divided, with 54% supporting strikes and 36% against.
The margins of error are larger for these smaller subgroups, but the results still indicate significant differences between different parts of the party. Trump framed much of his 2024 presidential campaign around the idea of an “America First” approach to foreign policy that was deeply critical of previous administrations that plunged the country into endless conflict around the world. Now, the Republican base is grappling with a new conflict.
McInturff said the division within the GOP is an important reminder of both the loyalties of the president’s base and the part of the party that is “soft” on Trump.
“Self-identified MAGA Republicans are incredibly supportive of Trump and the political base has so far been unshakable — and so far, certainly, so far unshakable about military action in Iran,” he said.
An NBC News Decision Desk poll from last June found a similar divide when examining Trump’s last major military action against Iran. Although there was some concern about that bombshell campaign among prominent MAGA-aligned figures, a survey of adults in the US, including voters and non-voters, showed rank-and-file MAGA-aligned Republicans mostly in favor of the president’s 2025 military action. Meanwhile, those who identified themselves as establishment Republicans were still supported, but by a smaller margin.
A new NBC News poll shows a deep divide by age over the Iran war, with younger voters more sour on the strikes than older voters.
Two-thirds of voters under 35 say the US should not have struck Iran, shared by 53% of 35- to 49-year-olds. A small number of 50 and 64-year-olds support strikes, at 52%, while those 65 and over are split.
There is also an educational divide in the survey — an increasingly common feature of polarized American politics. Voters without a college degree are evenly split on strikes, while those with a bachelor’s or master’s degree overwhelmingly believe the US should not have attacked Iran.
And there is also a significant gender divide, with 60% of women saying the US should not have taken military action against Iran, while 52% of men believe the US should have struck Iran.
Negative public sentiment toward U.S. military action is not driven by any warm feelings toward Iran. Overall, 61% of registered voters view Iran negatively, while only 8% have positive views of the country. Another 28% view Iran as neutral.
The NBC News poll polled 1,000 registered voters Feb. 27-March 3 through a mix of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error for the full poll is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Most questions about the war in Iran were asked of 753 registered voters since Feb. 28, and those questions have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
