Public support for the United States war with Iran has fallen to its lowest point since the conflict began, while President Donald Trump's approval rating has matched the lowest figure ever recorded for him across both his terms in office. The findings emerge from a Reuters/Ipsos poll closed on 24 August 2026, and are reinforced by a series of surveys conducted since the fighting started.
The United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026. Since that date, polling has tracked a near-unbroken decline in the public standing of both the war and the president who ordered America's participation in it.
The 24 August Reuters/Ipsos survey found that just 31% of Americans support US military action against Iran. That is down from 37% in March and 34% in an earlier August poll. Al Jazeera and Yahoo News reported the figures. Each Reuters/Ipsos survey in this series was conducted online among roughly 1,166 to 1,269 US adults, with a margin of error of three percentage points.
Trump's overall approval rating held at 33% in the same poll, the second consecutive Reuters/Ipsos survey to record that figure. It matches the lowest level ever measured for him across his first and second terms. His disapproval rating stands at 64%. Reuters first recorded the 33% figure in a poll conducted on 17 August, noting that it tied the low point reached during his first term in December 2017.
The erosion in war support is visible across party lines, but the shift among Republican voters carries particular political weight. GOP backing for the Iran war stood at 77% in March. By the 24 August poll it had fallen to 69%. Al Jazeera identified the decline in Republican support as a key driver of the overall drop. The trend is significant ahead of midterm elections, when the president's party typically requires energised core supporters.
Pessimism about the conflict's duration has also deepened. The 24 August poll found that 83% of Americans now believe the war will last "for an extended period of time," up from 80% in the earlier August survey. The figure has risen consistently since the strikes began.
An AP-NORC poll from late July found about two-thirds of US adults said the Iran war had not been worthwhile. Even among Republicans, roughly 37% held that view. Only 28% of respondents in that survey approved of Trump's handling of Iran specifically.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on 23 June produced some of the starkest findings on the conflict's perceived value. Only 24% of Americans said the war had been worth its costs. Only 23% believed the United States was in a stronger position with Iran than before the strikes. Some 63% said a truce with Tehran was unlikely to hold.
The war's connection to rising fuel costs has compounded the political damage. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from 24 March found that 46% of Americans believed the conflict would make the United States less safe in the long run, against 26% who said it would make the country safer. That survey was conducted as fuel prices surged in the weeks following the 28 February strikes.
By late April, the economic discontent was sharpening. An April 28 Reuters/Ipsos survey found that only 22% of Americans approved of Trump's performance on the cost of living, down from 25% in the preceding poll, with gasoline prices cited as a primary grievance.
Taken together, the surveys show that support for the Iran war has remained below 40% for at least five consecutive months in Reuters/Ipsos polling. Reuters noted in July that such sustained sub-40% backing marks a stark contrast to the initial public support seen in other recent US conflicts.
What remains unclear is the current military situation on the ground. It is unknown whether active hostilities between US forces and Iran are continuing or whether a ceasefire is holding, and the precise human and financial costs of the conflict have yet to be officially disclosed.
Comments (0)