A majority of Donald Trump’s supporters oppose US military intervention in Israel’s war against Iran. This is according to a new opinion poll published on Wednesday.
According to the comprehensive survey by The Economist/YouGov, conducted over the weekend, 53 percent of voters who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election want the US to stay out of Israel’s attacks.
Only 19 percent of Trump’s supporters advocate US military intervention, while 63 percent prefer the administration to try to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program.
Among all voters in the survey, 60 percent believed that the US should refrain from using military force in the conflict.
The results reflect long-standing public support for peaceful solutions to the Iran issue. An April poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs-Ipsos showed that eight in ten Americans preferred diplomacy or tougher economic sanctions to military action to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
And even if diplomacy or sanctions were to fail, many Americans prefer other methods. The same Ipsos poll showed that 60 percent could envisage US cyberattacks against Iranian systems, but only 48 percent of Americans supported air strikes against nuclear facilities.
“A terrible mistake”
Opposition to military escalation is also evident among several Republican politicians.
“This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution“, Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, wrote on X earlier this week. He expressed his support for an attempt to gather support in the House of Representatives for a bipartisan resolution to limit the president’s war powers.
This is not our war.
But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution.
I’m introducing a bipartisan War Powers Resolution tomorrow to prohibit our involvement.
I invite all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 16, 2025
Libertarian Senator Rand Paul is also a very vocal opponent of dragging the US into yet another unnecessary war.
– I will not vote to send american kids to Iran. I think its a terrible mistake, every way is not our war. Our country is bankrupting itself over our own obligations to our own people. We should not ever send one soldier to Iran and I hope I am pretty clear on that, he recently declared in an interview.
Let me be totally clear: I will not vote to send one American soldier to Iran. Not one. https://t.co/j1dC4nn6LA
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 18, 2025
Tim Burchett, Republican congressman from Tennessee, told CNN on Wednesday that he wanted to see “very little” US involvement in the escalating conflict.
– We don’t need another endless war in the Middle East. Old men make decisions and young men die, and that’s the history of war, he said.
Old men make decisions and young men die. Our men and women in uniform shouldn’t be sent to war without careful consideration by our leaders. I trust President Trump and his cabinet to make the right decision. pic.twitter.com/6djzllsr92
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) June 18, 2025
– We need to take a deep breath and slow down this thing and let the Israelis do their thing. We do not need a three-front war in our lifetime.
At the same time, powerful neoconservative actors and the Israel lobby are waging an intense campaign to get the Trump administration to drag the US into the war – despite popular opposition and the president’s earlier promises to be a “peacemaker” and end all wars.
