President Donald Trump holds a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Photo: Chen Mengtong/China News Service/Getty Images
The war in Iran that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu began in February has never been popular with Americans. But as it enters its third month, it is hitting a new nadir in public opinion.
A Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll released Friday found that 61 percent of U.S. adults believe that the United States using military force against Iran was a mistake. Thirty-six percent said it was the right decision. The results largely fell along party lines, with 91 percent of Democrats viewing the military action as a mistake and 79 percent of Republicans maintaining it was the right move. According to the Post, this survey marks the first time that disapproval ratings for the Iran conflict have mirrored the peak unpopularity of the Vietnam War, which hit those numbers in the early 1970s, and the Iraq War, which did so in 2006. In both cases, it took years, not months, for Americans to reach that level of frustration.
When asked whether the U.S.’s involvement in Iran has been successful, 39 percent of adults said it hasn’t been successful while 19 percent said that it has. Forty-one percent said that it was too soon to tell. The poll surveyed 2,560 U.S. adults from April 24 to 28.
The poll’s results echoed similar findings in recent surveys, showing a steady erosion in Americans’ approval of the war. An April NBC News–Decision Desk poll found that 54 percent of Americans strongly disapproved of Trump’s handling of the Iran war, while only 19 percent strongly approved. Sixty-one percent of adults said that the United States shouldn’t take any further action in Iran, while 23 percent said the country should consider all military options, including ground forces. A Reuters-Ipsos poll from last month found that 61 percent of adults disapproved of U.S. strikes on Iran with 34 percent approving. In that same survey, 44 percent said they believed military action in Iran will make the United States less safe, with only 27 percent saying they believed it would make the country safer.
Discontent about the conflict has only grown since the early days of the war. A CNN poll taken days after the United States’ first strikes in late February and early March found that 59 percent of Americans disapproved of the initial strikes, with 41 percent approving. A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted around the same period found that 43 percent of adults disapproved of the strikes compared to 27 percent approving.
The war’s unpopularity comes as the conflict has continued with no clear end in sight and as both the federal government and the American consumer face a growing price tag. As of Friday morning, AAA reports that the average price for a gallon of gasoline nationwide stands at $4.39, a figure that would’ve been unthinkable weeks earlier, as the U.S. and Iran appear at an impasse over the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route in the region. During testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, a Pentagon official gave the first indication of the war’s expense, saying that Operation Epic Fury has cost the government approximately $25 billion so far. However, officials tell CBS News that figure is likely closer to $50 billion when accounting for damage to military installations and equipment.
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