President Donald Trump’s unexpected war in Iran has cost him the trust of most Americans.
A shocking CNN poll finds that nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose the president and Israel’s coordinated strikes against Iran, which have claimed the lives of at least four U.S. service members at the time of publication.
Surveys also show that many voters don’t believe Trump’s version of how the conflict will unfold.
A new poll finds that nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose Trump’s strike on Iran. /Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The 79-year-old president told CNN on Monday that he does not expect the war he has started to last. “I don’t want to see this go on for too long,” he insisted. “I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”
But a majority of respondents (56%) said they believed a protracted military conflict between the United States and Iran was at least “likely”.
What’s more, 62% of Americans say Trump should seek congressional approval for any additional military action, and 60% say he lacks a clear strategy for dealing with the conflict.
Congressmen and Trump foes Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Kana (D-Calif.) are expected to introduce votes next week aimed at limiting Trump’s military action without congressional approval.
That effort did not stop the president from launching a major attack on Saturday morning, when a direct attack on the Shajareye Tayabeh girls’ school in Minab, Hormozgan province, reportedly killed at least 43 students and injured 63 others, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
Trump himself has acknowledged uncertainty about the war’s duration. In a brief phone interview with Axios on Saturday, he mused: “I could take a long time to take over the whole thing, or wrap it up in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘If you start rebuilding, see you in a few years. [your nuclear and missile programs].'”
Trump waged war in the hastily constructed space at Mar-a-Lago with CIA Director John Ratcliffe (left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second from right) and White House Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles (right), among others. /whitehouse/x
The poll was conducted on Saturday and Sunday after reports of an attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but before news broke that Americans had been killed in the military operation.
The survey, conducted within hours of Operation Epic Fury, found that only a quarter of Americans supported a military strike.
Even the president’s own “MAGA” supporters don’t seem interested. In a January Politico poll, only half of Trump voters supported military action against Iran in 2024, leaving his administration with the task of selling them a war that he acknowledged could cost more American lives.
Meanwhile, Trump has heaped praise on Iran for its ongoing attacks, which have killed at least 550 people as of this writing.
On Sunday night, Trump was interviewed by ABC reporter Jonathan Carr, who said the president was becoming increasingly optimistic.
“He told me, quote, ‘No one can do this but me, you know,'” Carr said. good morning america early Monday.
Carr added that Trump had been “spoiled” by his successful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores in January without causing any American deaths and was a factor in the collapse of negotiations between the United States and Iran before the attack.
“He told me a year ago that he would accept the conditions offered by the Iranians, but quote, ‘We’ve been spoiled,'” Carr said.
President Donald Trump was distracted Monday as he discussed ballroom construction, first lady Melania Trump’s complaints and picking out gold curtains shortly after the deadly attack on Iran, in which at least four U.S. service members have been killed so far. /Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
When reached for comment, a White House official told The Daily Beast backstage: “A majority of Americans support President Trump in taking decisive action against a terrorist regime that has killed and maimed thousands of Americans at the evil hands of the Ayatollahs for nearly 50 years. The president has been clear that Iran, the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism, will never acquire a nuclear weapon, and his actions now will make America and the world a safer place.”
