President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is already tearing apart his own party.
Polling has shown that the majority of the U.S. public doesn’t support Trump’s latest military action, and an unusual number of Republicans are questioning why America is plunging into another Middle East conflict.
According to YouGov polling published on Feb. 28, the day of the first strikes on Iran, just 34 percent of Americans approved of the attacks, while 44 percent disapproved. Among Republicans, 69 percent backed the strikes—far lower than the 93 percent who supported George W. Bush’s Iraq War in 2003 or the 96 percent who backed the Afghanistan invasion in 2001.
Reuters/Ipsos polling of 1,282 U.S. adults between Feb. 28 and March 1 found that 13 percent of GOP voters opposed the strikes, 32 percent were unsure, and 23 percent said Trump is too quick to use military force.
Polls show that skepticism among GOP voters had already been brewing before the latest strikes. A University of Maryland poll conducted Feb. 5‑9, prior to the attacks, found 25 percent of Republicans opposed U.S. action in Iran, while 35 percent were unsure.
Just half of 2024 Trump voters supported military action in Iran in a Politico poll last month, while 30 percent opposed it.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The numbers highlight a growing rift within the Republican Party, as Trump’s “America First” base wrestles with a military escalation many see as unprovoked and risky.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump ran on a “no new wars” platform, pledging to avoid foreign entanglements and prioritize U.S. interests. It was a message that resonated with MAGA voters tired of decades-long conflicts.
Since taking office, however, his actions have sharply diverged from that anti-interventionist stance.
Saturday’s strikes against Iran marked the second time in the past year the Trump administration has used military force against Tehran, following punitive attacks on nuclear sites in June 2025. In early January, the president launched an operation to capture Venezuela’s president, and he and his acolytes have teased a possible intervention in Cuba.
The military action drew sharp criticism from Trump’s base. Misogynist influencer Andrew Tate posted “NOBODY WANTS THIS WAR” on X and added on a livestream, “I do not support war with Iran for Israel,” accusing unnamed forces of being “desperate to get us into a war with Iran.”
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and far-right figures Milo Yiannopoulos and Nick Fuentes also condemned the strikes. Fuentes wrote on X: “This is a war of aggression for Israel. Americans will die in terrorist attacks and in missile strikes so that Israel can expand its borders in every direction. Trump, Vance, and Rubio sold us out.”
Previously loyal voices like Marjorie Taylor Greene also slammed Trump for betraying MAGA’s anti-war promises.
In a nearly 700-word post, she wrote: “Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people. Please.
“There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah sure,” she continued.
“It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.”
Fox News, traditionally pro-Trump, described the strikes on its website as “brazen,” noting that a U.S. official said Israel was targeting Iranian leadership while American forces aimed at missile and military sites posing an “imminent threat.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a critic of Trump within Congress, vowed to force a vote on any further escalation: “I am opposed to this War. This is not ‘America First.’ When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran. The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”
Trump sought to justify Saturday’s “major combat operations” by arguing Iran had refused to curb its nuclear program.
But last year, when the U.S. first joined Israel in strikes, he boasted the military had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, which would take “years” to rebuild.
In an eight-minute video announcing the latest strikes, he warned Americans of the risks: “My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.”
Since the strikes, four U.S. service members have been killed and four more critically wounded. U.S. Central Command said additional troops suffered minor shrapnel wounds and concussions but are expected to return to duty.
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