Not Just Progressives: Over Half of Trump Voters Oppose US War on Iran

While it is widely known that American progressives overwhelmingly oppose the war on Iran at which President Donald Trump is increasingly hinting, new polling published Tuesday revealed that a thin majority of respondents who voted for the Republican president are also against U.S. involvement in the widening Israel-Iran war.

According to the Economist/YouGov survey of 1,512 U.S. adults conducted between June 13-16, 60% of all respondents oppose U.S. involvement in the war, while just 16% supported military action and 24% were unsure. Among those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris for president last year, 71% opposed war on Iran.

So did 53% of Trump voters. In fact, a majority of respondents across all gender, race, age, and income categories opposed military action against Iran.

The survey also found that more Republican-identified respondents supported U.S. negotiations with Iran than did Democrats, 61% to 58%. Fifty-six percent of all those surveyed back talks, while 18% oppose negotiations.

Reflecting disenchantment among people who voted for Trump because they believed his claim to be a "peace president," Trump's favorite pollster, Rich Baris, director of Big Data Poll—who calls neoconservative Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) "war whores"—warned of dire electoral consequences should the U.S. go to war.

The National Iranian American Council also partnered with YouGov to ask 585 Iranian Americans how they feel about a possible U.S. war on Iran. Fifty-three percent of overall respondents said they "strongly" or "somewhat oppose" such action, while 36% strongly or somewhat back war. Strong opposition—37%—was 20 points higher than strong support for an attack on Iran.

The poll also found that a strong majority of Iranian Americans want a new nuclear agreement that prevents Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Trump administration—which, like multiple preceding ones concluded that Tehran is not seeking nukes—unilaterally withdrew from the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018.

While there were hopes of a renewed deal during the tenure of former U.S. President Joe Biden, no agreement was reached, and Iranians continue to suffer under economic sanctions that critics have said are killing people and crippling the country's economy.

"We expect that Israel's military operations have only tilted opinion further against war in recent days," NIAC president Jamal Abdi said in a statement. "Regardless, these results reinforce what we already know—our community is overwhelmingly against war and demands a foreign policy rooted in diplomacy, not destruction. We will share additional results from this timely survey next week."

Trump, who has been threatening to attack Iran since his first term, earlier this year sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in which he claims to have written, "I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing."

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before," Trump said during a March NBC News interview.

A poll commissioned by Demand Progress and conducted by the Bullfinch Group recently found that 53% of registered voters—including 58% of Democrats, 47% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans—want Trump to "obtain congressional authorization before striking targets in other countries."

Legislation that would compel Trump to get congressional approval to attack Iran under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 was introduced Tuesday by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and co-sponsored by at least 14 mostly progressive Democrats, while Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have introduced similar measures in the Senate.