President Donald Trump joined in on Israel’s war with Iran on Saturday, bombing multiple nuclear sites in Iran.
The move was quickly condemned by Massachusetts lawmakers, and now the general public is weighing in with multiple polls published by YouGov.
The results were that the majority of people are unhappy with the move.
In a question posed to 2,824 adults on Sunday — a day after the bombings — YouGov found that a clear majority, 53%, disapproved of the way Trump is handling Iran, with 35% approving and 12% offering no opinion.
The largest sector of the population — 43% — strongly disapproved.
However, politics were a factor in these numbers.
Among Republicans, 52% strongly approved of the way Trump is handling Iran, with 23% somewhat approving. Meanwhile, 73% of Democrats strongly disapproved of Trump’s actions while 11% somewhat disapproved.
Independents largely swung away from Trump, with 45% strongly disapproving and only 15% strongly approving. Overall, 57% of independents disapproved of Trump’s actions in Iran while 27% approved.
Another YouGov survey conducted over the weekend asked the question a different way: “Do you approve or disapprove of the U.S. bombing nuclear sites in Iran?”
Again, more people disapproved than approved — with 46% disapproving and 35% approving.
But an interesting aspect of that poll was in how much people had heard about it. Those who knew less about it — particularly Republicans — were less likely to support it. Among Republicans, 85% who had heard a lot about the bombings strongly or somewhat approved of them, compared to 68% who had heard a little and 42% who hadn’t heard anything about them.
YouGov found that Republican support for bombing Iran is a new development, with only 23% of Republicans thinking the U.S. military should get involved with the conflict between Israel and Iran in a survey prior to the U.S. attack.
After the attack, that number jumped to 69% of Republicans.
YouGov also asked whether people thought Iran would retaliate against the U.S. More than half — 54% — said definitely or probably yes, while 23% said definitely not or probably not.
The majority was larger when people were asked if they though Iran would attack U.S. bases in the Middle East, with 71% thinking they would and only 10% saying definitely not or probably not.
More people believe that bombing Iran will make the U.S. less safe, with 44% saying the actions will make the U.S. less safe and only 25% saying safer.
At the same time, a clear majority does think that the U.S. bombing harmed Iran’s nuclear capacity — 59% said they believe the U.S. bombing diminished Iran’s capacity to make nuclear weapons in the future either a lot or a little, and 13% said they believed they weren’t reduced at all.
Finally, YouGov asked whether they thought the bombing would lead to a wider war with Iran. Most did.
Of those polled, more than two thirds — 67% — agreed that it was either very likely or somewhat likely that the bombing would lead to a wider war between the U.S. and Iran, with 20% saying it was not very likely or not likely at all.
