President Donald Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against Iran is broadly unpopular with Americans, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after the strikes.
Americans disapprove of the strikes, 56% to 44%, according to the survey, with strong disapproval outpacing the share who strongly approve. Most distrust Trump’s decision-making on the use of force in Iran, with about 6 in 10 worried that the strikes will increase the Iranian threat to the US.
Sharp partisan divides cut through nearly every question asked in the survey: Democrats are broadly opposed to the strikes as most Republicans support them, though younger GOP supporters and Republican-leaning independents are more skeptical than others in their party.
Majorities of independents (60%) and Democrats (88%) disapprove of the decision to take military action in Iran. Republicans largely approve (82%). But just 44% of Republicans strongly approve of the airstrikes, far smaller than the group of Democrats who strongly disapprove (60%), perhaps reflecting that some in Trump’s coalition are broadly distrustful of military action abroad.
A 58% majority overall say the strikes will make Iran more of a threat to the US, with just 27% believing it will lessen the threat and the rest expecting it to do neither. Even among those who support the strikes, just 55% expect them to lessen the threat level.
And few say the US made enough of an effort at diplomacy before using military force: 32% feel the US did enough, 39% that it did not and 29% are unsure.
The poll was conducted Sunday and Monday, with nearly all of the interviews completed before Iran launched retaliatory strikes Monday against US air bases and all interviews done before Trump’s subsequent announcement of a ceasefire.
Just over half of Americans, 55%, expresses little or no trust in Trump to make the right decisions about the US use of force in Iran, with 45% saying they trust him moderately or a great deal. And most – 65% – say that he should be required to get congressional approval for any further military action, with 21% saying he should not.
Mistrust of Trump’s judgment is especially high among Democrats (88% of whom express little or no trust) and independents (62%), who also broadly say the president should be required to get congressional approval for any further military action in Iran (88% of Democrats and 67% of independents feel that way).
Republicans express more trust in the president, although that trust is also somewhat tempered: 51% say they have a great deal of trust in him to make the right decisions on the use of force with Iran, 37% a moderate amount. And the GOP divides over whether Trump ought to be required to get congressional approval for further action, with 39% saying he should be required to do so, 38% that he should not and 23% are not sure.
Americans younger than 35 are more likely than any other age group to disapprove of the military action in Iran (68% disapprove). They also express the broadest skepticism about Trump: They are the most likely of any age group to say they have no trust at all in Trump’s ability to make the right decisions about US use of force in Iran (45% feel that way) and to say he ought to be required to get congressional approval before taking further military action (73%).
That skepticism is partly driven by younger Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Just 20% of Republican-aligned Americans younger than 45 say they strongly approve of the decision to carry out airstrikes, compared with 53% among older Republican-aligned Americans. Younger Republicans are about 20 points more likely than older adults aligned with the party to believe the strikes increase the threat to the US from Iran and are 26 points less likely to have a great deal of trust in Trump’s decision-making on the use of force in Iran.
Overall, there’s almost no public appetite for sending ground troops into Iran, with just 9% in favor, and 68% opposed, with the remaining 23% unsure. Even those who support the airstrikes against Iran oppose sending in ground troops by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
The share of Americans who offer no opinion when given the choice to do suggests that public opinion hasn’t yet fully settled in the wake of a rapidly evolving situation. While the vast majority, 8 in 10, say they’ve been following news about America’s strikes at least somewhat closely, only about one-third say they’ve followed the news very closely.
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