The Blowback From an Unpopular Iran War
Trump’s Iran campaign may have the surprising effect of putting foreign policy back into the hands of American voters.
This article appeared in The American Prospect on March 3, 2026
Nobody wants this.
President Trump stands ready to expand his war against Iran, but the numbers already show how unpopular it is. Six out of ten Americans disapprove of U.S. military action against Iran, according to a new CNN survey. Fifty-six percent of Americans think the president is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll fielded over the weekend. If public opinion had a strong bearing on U.S. foreign policy, then this would be a blinking-red indicator that the new war is neither sustainable nor desirable—an all-around destructive campaign.
That the president has failed to make a coherent argument in favor of the Iran strikes, to seek congressional approval, or to make any outreach to the public may well end up backfiring.
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Read more of Jonathan’s article in The American Prospect
Written by Jonathan Guyer
Jonathan is the Program Director of the Institute for Global Affairs at Eurasia Group’s Independent America program.
This post is part of Independent America, a research program led out by Jonathan Guyer, which seeks to explore how US foreign policy could better be tailored to new global realities and to the preferences of American voters.
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