A new poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose military action in Iran

A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling the US-Israel conflict with Iran and directly oppose military action, according to the latest poll from PBS News, NPR and Marist.

He watches: With the intensification of US-Israeli strikes, Iran says it is no longer looking to negotiate

As Operation Epic Fury approaches the end of its first week, the new poll finds that 56% of Americans oppose US military action in Iran, while 44% support it. Support for American action has remained relatively stable since January, before the attacks began. The survey was conducted in the days following an Iranian drone strike on a command center in Kuwait that killed six American soldiers.

The United States and Israel targeted Iranian military and government sites, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. More than 1,000 civilians were also killed in the conflict, including an estimated 175 students and staff at a girls’ school, which a preliminary US military investigation suggests was caused by a US airstrike, according to Reuters.

A majority (54%) of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is dealing with Iran. Another 36% agree and 10% aren’t sure, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll. Graphic by Steve Staples/PBS News.

Trump’s approval rating for his dealings with Iran is 36%, down 6 percentage points from January 2020, when tensions with Tehran escalated following a US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, a division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

He watches: Iranian Americans express hope and fear about what comes next

Opinion about the current work is sharply divided along party lines. A strong majority of Republicans support the president’s approach and the strikes themselves — 79% and 84%, respectively — while 86% of Democrats oppose both. Among independents, nearly 6 in 10 disapprove of Trump’s handling of the situation and oppose military action.

A majority of Americans – 56% – oppose US military action in Iran, according to the latest poll conducted by PBS News/NPR/Marist, while 44% support it. Graphic by Steve Staples/PBS News.

The picture becomes more complex when it comes to how Americans view the potential threat posed by Iran. A large number of Americans – 44% – say that Tehran poses a major threat to the security of the United States. This is down from 48% last July, shortly after the United States targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities with bunker-buster bombs. This slight decline may indicate that some Americans see Iran as a less urgent threat with its weak military capabilities.

He watches: John Kirby talks about concerns about Iran’s post-war future

In the latest poll, 40% of Americans consider Iran a minor threat, while 15% see no threat at all to US security.

A large number of Americans — 44% — say Iran poses a major threat to U.S. security, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll. 40% see the country as a minor threat, while 15% see it as no threat at all. Graphic by Dan Cooney/PBS News.

The general issue of war

In the days after the president approved military action that ousted Iran’s leadership, he cited multiple justifications for doing so, including regime change, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and halting what he described as imminent threats to U.S. forces. When asked on Tuesday if the United States had acted because Israel was planning to attack first, Trump said: “No, I probably would have forced them to.” Changing interpretations may have made it difficult for Americans to assess what success would look like from US actions in the region.

Read more: Trump has spent years mocking foreign entanglements. Now, he has taken the United States to war with Iran

Retired US Army Colonel Joel Rayburn, a former National Security Council staffer who focused on Iran policy during Trump’s first term, said the military operation is succeeding faster than expected and sharply limits any potential or ongoing threat from a regime bent on causing harm.

President Donald Trump speaks with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wales and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during military operations in Iran, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 28, 2026. White House Photo/Social Media/Handout via Reuters

“If someone is running up to you, shooting you with a gun, the fact that they’re gone doesn’t mean they’re not a threat to your life,” said Rayburn, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. He added: “President Trump is the first president we have ever had to take the Iranian threat as seriously as it needs to be taken, and do something about it.”

Others are much less convinced. Alan Eyre, a former State Department official who helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration, said the Trump administration offered shifting interpretations of the conflict.

“To suggest that Iran poses an imminent or even a major threat to the security of the United States is laughable and laughable,” Ayer said. He added, “This administration has done a poor job of providing a convincing justification for attacking Iran” or defining a clear end to the conflict.

Read more: Congress has not formally declared war since World War II. Here’s how presidential war powers have evolved since then

Ayer, a fellow at the Middle East Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, also expressed concern about the limited role Congress played in the decision to take military action. War powers resolutions that would have limited further participation were rejected in both the House and Senate this week, largely along partisan lines.

“Our political system is largely broken,” he added. “Congress is inactive and is in no way exercising the responsibilities given to it by the US Constitution.”

What’s the next step?

Whether public opinion shifts depends largely on how and how quickly the conflict ends. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Friday that the military operation should end within four to six weeks, despite an internal Pentagon memo obtained by Politico suggesting it could last months.

Rayburn expressed confidence that the process would ultimately lead to the dismantling of what he described as Iran’s decades-long efforts to destabilize the Middle East.

With the overthrow of the Iranian regime, “suddenly you will have an opportunity to bring stability and peace to the region,” Rayburn said. “The American people will see it. If they don’t see it now, they will see it over time.”

He watches: The White House says US ground forces in Iran are “not part of the plan” at this time

Ayer was more skeptical about the possibility of a coherent strategic vision or interpretation emerging from the Trump administration. Without sustained resolve from Congress or the public, the president will have little incentive to deliver such resolve, he said.

“The only thing that will cause President Trump to reconsider is adverse domestic political pressures,” Ayer said.

PBS News, NPR and Marist Poll conducted the poll March 2-4, 2026, of 1,591 American adults by phone, text and online with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, and 1,392 registered voters with a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.