President Donald Trump’s standing with voters faces immediate pressure, after a Fox News poll found a record share of registered Americans oppose the war with Iran and doubt the administration’s plan to end it. Seventy-one percent of respondents said the president’s team does not have a clear strategy to resolve the hostilities, and many tied the conflict to higher inflation and rising fuel costs.
Published Thursday and conducted in mid-September, the survey reported more than 60 percent of voters now view US military action against Iran as the wrong decision. The poll also recorded a 61 percent disapproval rating for Trump’s overall performance, a figure that adds urgency to both parties as campaigning enters the final weeks before November.
Voters’ security concerns about the conflict have grown. Forty-seven percent of registered voters said the confrontation will make the United States less safe over the long term, up from 39 percent in April. Just 32 percent said the war would leave the country safer, a gap that pollsters say underscores shifting public sentiment on foreign policy and national security risks.
The release of the poll coincided with the start of in-person early voting for the midterm elections in some jurisdictions, and early voting overall will last six weeks. The midterms include contests for the US House of Representatives and the Senate. If Democrats capture a majority in either chamber, they could change the policy and oversight landscape for the president’s remaining two years in office.
That electoral context is already charged by steps the president has taken to reshape voting rules and election administration. In recent months he has sought to restrict mail ballots, pressured officials to share sensitive voter data, and opened an expansive federal investigation into alleged non-citizen voting. He has also promised a $5,000 payout for every adult US citizen if his party retains control of both houses of Congress.
For now, the Fox News numbers give Democrats a line of attack and leave Republicans with a test: whether a surge in opposition to the war will translate into turnout that can shift control of Congress, or whether other issues will dominate voters’ decisions in November.
