Just one in three Americans backs Iran war, most unsure of Trump’s goals, poll finds

Just one in three Americans supports the war on Iran , the lowest reading in a Reuters/Ipsos poll since the five-month-old conflict’s early days, with most respondents saying that President Donald Trump has failed to explain his goals .

The poll, conducted Friday through Sunday, also showed the Republican president’s approval rating ticking higher to 37%, up 3 points from last month when his rating tied the lowest of his presidency.

Trump has offered shifting objectives for the conflict such as aiding Iranians to topple their leaders, taking out Iran’s ballistic-missile capabilities and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The poll found that 69% of Americans — including four in 10 Republicans — think Trump has not “clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran.”

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump will not make decisions based on “fluid opinion polls” and reiterated the president’s resolve to prevent 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,” Wales said.

Approval of the conflict has been below 40% since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on February 28 — a stark contrast to the opening months of other recent conflicts.

While each had different context, the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 had the support of about 70% of Americans in its early months. During the early days of the Afghanistan War, which lasted from 2001 to 2021, about 90% of the country backed the war, according to polling by Gallup.

‘No idea’ why US at war

Public disapproval of the war is weighing on Trump and his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections when the president’s allies will defend slim majorities in the U.S. Congress.

“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 became a Republican in part because he liked how Republican President George H.W. Bush handled the Gulf War in 1991.

Womack, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during that conflict, said his support for Trump has ebbed because of the war. “I don’t think he’s doing very well, personally,” he said.

To date, 18 American soldiers have died in the conflict while thousands have died in Iran and in Lebanon, where Iran-allied fighters have battled Israeli forces.

The war has pushed gasoline prices sharply higher, a blow to the finances of many Americans. Gasoline prices are averaging just over $4 a gallon nationwide, up from about $3 a gallon just before the war started on February 28.

“This puts pressure on the party in a myriad of ways, all of them bad,” said Alex Conant, a Republican political strategist and a White House spokesman during the presidency of George W. Bush. “The White House officials have been saying since January that they need to win economic arguments. It’s hard to win the economic arguments when you’re clearly focused on foreign policy.”

Independent registered voters in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were favoring the Democratic congressional candidate over the Republican by 36% to 20%. Independent voters also favored Democrats over Republicans on economic policy, the poll found.

Trump vowed to stay out of wars

In campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, Trump said he would keep the U.S. out of enduring conflicts. He initially estimated the Iran war would last four to five weeks. He has bristled over comparisons to other wars, including the Vietnam War, which lasted two decades and claimed the lives of more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers.

Rhyan Anderson, an independent from Fairburn, Georgia, who voted for Trump in 2024, said he thinks Trump should focus on domestic problems rather than on helping Israel or other allies.

“My biggest thing is just focus on the people who are actually in the country,” said Anderson, who works two jobs in security and data collection and said he voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. “I know we have allies and things like that, but there’s a lot of people here that really need help.”

Since mid-March, the Reuters/Ipsos survey has asked respondents whether they support or oppose military strikes on Iran. At that time, 37% said they supported the war.

That compared to 27% approval on the day the war began, when the Reuters/Ipsos survey also gave respondents the option to choose unsure, which 29% did.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted online and nationwide, gathered responses from 1,246 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

仅有三分之一的美国人支持对伊朗的战争，这是自这场持续五个月的冲突初期以来路透社/益普索民调中的最低读数，大多数受访者表示，唐纳德·特朗普总统未能解释他的目标。

这项于周五至周日进行的民意调查还显示，这位共和党总统的支持率小幅上升至 37%，比上个月上升了 3 个百分点，当时他的支持率与他总统任期内的最低点持平。

特朗普曾多次提出应对伊朗冲突的目标，例如帮助伊朗推翻其领导人、摧毁伊朗的弹道导弹能力以及阻止其获得核武器。民调显示，69%的美国人（包括十分之四的共和党人）认为特朗普没有“清楚地解释美国军事介入伊朗的目标”。

白宫发言人奥利维亚·威尔士表示，特朗普不会根据“瞬息万变的民意调查”做出决定，并重申了总统阻止伊朗获得核武器的决心。

威尔士说：“对美国人民来说，最重要的是拥有一位能够采取大胆行动保障他们安全的总司令。”

自美国和以色列于 2 月 28 日发动空袭以来，民众对这场冲突的支持率一直低于 40%，这与其他近期冲突爆发初期的情况形成了鲜明对比。

尽管两场战争的背景各不相同，但2003年至2011年的伊拉克战争在初期获得了约70%美国人的支持。根据盖洛普民意调查，在2001年至2021年持续的阿富汗战争初期，约90%的美国民众支持这场战争。

“不知道”美国为何参战

在即将到来的11月中期选举中，公众对战争的不满给特朗普及其共和党带来了压力，届时总统的盟友将捍卫他们在美国国会中微弱的多数席位。

“我不明白我们为什么要和他们开战。我完全不知道，”来自佐治亚州斯托克布里奇的退休涡轮机维修专家亚历克斯·沃马克说道。他之所以成为共和党人，部分原因是他喜欢共和党总统乔治·H·W·布什在1991年处理海湾战争的方式。

沃马克曾在那场冲突期间在美国海军陆战队服役，他说，由于这场战争，他对特朗普的支持有所减弱。“就我个人而言，我认为他做得不太好，”他说。

迄今为止，已有 18 名美国士兵在冲突中丧生，而伊朗和黎巴嫩已有数千人丧生，在黎巴嫩，伊朗支持的武装分子与以色列军队交战。

战争导致汽油价格大幅上涨，给许多美国人的经济状况造成了沉重打击。目前，全美汽油平均价格略高于每加仑4美元，而2月28日战争爆发前，汽油价格约为每加仑3美元。

“这会从各个方面给共和党带来压力，而且都是负面的压力，”共和党政治策略师、小布什总统时期的白宫发言人亚历克斯·康南特说。“白宫官员从一月份就开始说，他们需要在经济问题上取得胜利。但当你的重心明显放在外交政策上时，就很难在经济问题上取得胜利。”

路透社/益普索最新民调显示，独立选民中，36%的人支持民主党国会候选人，20%的人支持共和党候选人。民调还发现，独立选民在经济政策方面也更倾向于民主党而非共和党。

特朗普誓言不卷入战争

在2024年总统竞选期间，特朗普曾表示他将使美国避免卷入旷日持久的冲突。他最初估计伊朗战争将持续四到五周。他一直对将伊朗战争与其他战争进行比较感到不满，包括持续二十年、造成超过5.8万名美军士兵丧生的越南战争。

来自佐治亚州费尔伯恩的独立人士瑞安·安德森在2024年投票支持特朗普，他表示，他认为特朗普应该专注于国内问题，而不是帮助以色列或其他盟友。

“我最关心的就是真正生活在这个国家里的人们，”安德森说道。他同时从事安保和数据收集两份工作，并表示自己在2020年投票给了民主党候选人乔·拜登。“我知道我们有盟友之类的，但这里有很多真正需要帮助的人。”

自3月中旬以来，路透社/益普索的调查一直在询问受访者是否支持或反对对伊朗进行军事打击。当时，37%的受访者表示支持这场战争。

相比之下，战争爆发当天的支持率为 27%，当时路透社/益普索的调查还允许受访者选择“不确定”，有 29% 的人选择了“不确定”。

路透社/益普索最新调查在线上进行，覆盖全美，收集了 1246 名美国成年人的回复，误差幅度为正负 3 个百分点。