Eighty-four percent of respondents called the strikes ‘limited military actions, not war’
Ninety percent of President Donald Trump’s voters support the U.S. strikes that decimated Iran’s nuclear program, according to a new poll, undercutting media claims that the attack set off a “MAGA civil war.”
The GrayHouse poll, conducted in the immediate wake of the Saturday strikes and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, shows that 76 percent of Trump voters strongly support the attack, compared with 14 percent who somewhat support them. Eighty-four percent of respondents, meanwhile, agreed that the strikes were “limited military actions, not war.” Eighty-two percent called the attack “a smarter, more limited operation that can achieve U.S. objectives without leading to a wider war.”
Those respondents were proven right on Monday, when Iran responded to the strikes with a limited attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar that caused no significant damage and yielded no casualties. Iran gave “early notice” of the “very weak” missile barrage, according to Trump, who hours later announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that is expected to bring the war to a close in roughly 24 hours.
The poll’s findings stand in stark contrast to mainstream media coverage that warned of a “civil war” and “split” within the MAGA base over Trump’s support for Israel in the war as well as his decision to strike Iran’s nuclear program. Though prominent Republican isolationist voices like Tucker Carlson broke with Trump over the war, polls showed little daylight between the president and his supporters.
“President Trump kept his promise and that’s why his approval is at a record high,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) told the Free Beacon. “Republicans back Israel against our common enemy Iran and the party is united.”
Beyond its topline results, the GrayHouse poll found that 87 percent of Trump voters agree with the statement, “Iran obtaining nuclear weapons would be an existential threat to the United States and our allies that justifies military action to prevent.” Seventy-five percent said the “airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities” make them “more confident in America’s military capabilities,” while 74 percent said they believe the attack made America “much safer” or “somewhat safer.”
Trump said as early as 2011 that the United States “can’t allow Iran to go nuclear” and warned on the campaign trail that the Islamic Republic was “very close” to obtaining an atomic weapon. Critics like Carlson questioned that claim, downplaying Tehran’s threat and arguing that attacking Iran would spark a massive war that would be devastating for the United States. For one senior Senate staffer, the poll shows that those critics are on the “fringe” of the GOP.
“This data proves that Tucker Carlson’s kooky hatred of Israel is a fringe view held only by mentally unstable podcasters and pay-to-play influencers,” the staffer said.
Trump’s attack saw the United States use seven B-2 bombers to drop 14 bunker buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities, while a U.S. submarine fired more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, Axios reported. The strikes “fully destroyed” the Iranian nuclear enrichment sites at Natanz, Esfahan, and Fordow, according to Israeli journalist Amit Segal.
“There isn’t a single centrifuge left in Iran, as far as I understand,” Segal said on Monday.