A recent NBC News poll reveals that a majority of registered voters disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran and believe that the U.S. should not have taken military action.
54% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, while 41% approve and 5% say they either don’t have an opinion or aren’t sure. 52%, say the U.S. should not have taken the military action, while 41% say it should have and 7% say they aren’t sure.
NBC News polling from early 2002 to early 2003 found majorities of Americans saying the U.S. should take military action to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
Trump and his allies have argued that the strikes were essential to protect Americans from “imminent threats,” accusing Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon. However, the overwhelming majority of Democrats, 89%, say the U.S. shouldn’t have struck Iran. Among independents, 58% agree.
Republicans are overall more supportive of the strikes: 77% say the U.S. should have struck Iran. Conservatives who support Trump’s MAGA movement are 90% in favor of the strikes, while 5% are not. Republicans who don’t see themselves as part of MAGA are more divided, with 54% supporting the strikes and 36% against them.
Two-thirds of voters under 35 believe the U.S. shouldn’t have struck Iran, a sentiment also shared by 53% of those aged 35 to 49. In contrast, a slim majority of those aged 50 to 64 support the strikes, while those aged 65 and older are divided.
61% of registered voters view Iran negatively, while just 8% have positive views of it. Another 28% view Iran neutrally.
The NBC News poll conducted on February 27-March 3 surveyed 1,000 registered voters using a combination of telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error for the entire poll is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Notably, most questions related to the war in Iran were specifically asked to 753 registered voters beginning on February 28.
