Six in Ten Americans Oppose Trump's Iran Strike Decision, Poll Shows

Six in ten Americans do not support President Donald Trump's decision to attack Iran, according to a new poll.

A CNN-SSRS survey of 1,004 American adults conducted from Dec. 28, when the strikes on Iran began, through Jan. 1 found that 59% of respondents opposed the attack decision.

Only 27% of respondents said the United States made sufficient diplomatic efforts before using military force, while 39% deemed diplomatic efforts insufficient. Opposition to deploying troops to Iran stood at 60%, far exceeding the 12% who supported deployment.

Americans also gave negative assessments of President Trump's ability to handle the situation. When asked how confident they were that Trump would make sound military decisions regarding Iran, 59% responded negatively. Additionally, 60% said they did not believe Trump has a clear plan for managing the Iran situation.

More than half of respondents expected continued instability ahead. Fifty-four percent said U.S. military operations against Iran would increase threats to America, while 28% predicted threats would diminish. Fifty-six percent said they expected the military conflict between the U.S. and Iran to become prolonged.

Views on the Iran strikes diverged sharply along partisan lines. Among Republican supporters, 77% backed the strikes, compared to just 18% of Democratic supporters. The share believing the strikes would reduce Iran's threat to the U.S. was 58% among Republicans and 9% among Democrats. The survey was conducted via text message with a margin of error of ±3.9 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

Meanwhile, President Trump's approval rating is faltering ahead of November's midterm elections. A Reuters poll of 1,282 American adults conducted on Jan. 1 showed Trump's job approval at 39%, down 1 percentage point from the previous survey.