Most Americans disapprove of Trump Iran handling

Most Americans – A new AP-NORC poll finds 65% of U.S. adults disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling Iran, while his overall approval sits at 37%. The survey was taken June 11-17, just after Trump called off threats to escalate the war with Iran and announced a de

For many Americans, the shift from threats to a deal with Iran did not translate into support.

Between June 11 and June 17—just after President Donald Trump called off threats to escalate the war with Iran—the latest AP-NORC poll found that most U.S. adults, 65%, disapprove of how Trump is handling issues with Iran. About one-third, 34%, approve. The numbers line up closely with the president’s approval on the job overall: 37%. unchanged from a May AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

The timing matters. The poll was conducted as Trump suggested a deal with Iran had been reached and authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. It concluded just before the deal was signed Wednesday, after Trump announced the agreement and an end to the blockade.

Americans’ disapproval of Trump’s approach to Iran has stayed lopsidedly partisan. While most Democrats and independents said Trump’s actions toward Iran are negative, only 28% of Republicans are unhappy.

One reason for the frustration shows up in the details of what the agreement would do. The deal gives Iran an immediate benefit by allowing it to sell its oil freely again. It also reopens the strait without tolls for two months, restarts talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, and calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

David Farrington, a 79-year-old Republican-leaning independent in Fort Worth, Texas, said he “doesn’t have any love lost” for Iran. Still, he was unhappy with what he sees as the focus of the agreement.

Farrington said the deal centered on the Strait of Hormuz and did not deliver more on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. “Any agreement regarding the strait is hardly what I would consider a recognizable concession on the part of Iran. ” he said. “So, I consider that some fluff that attempts to make this agreement look better when it’s not.”.

Other Republicans who supported Trump’s broader posture also sounded uneasy about the outcome.

The poll suggests that, even with negotiations on the horizon, many Americans want the war’s momentum to stop. Even with an agreement on the horizon, 53% of U.S. adults said American military action against Iran had “gone too far”—a slight decline from 59% in March. About 4 in 10 Republicans said in the latest poll that action has been “about right. ” while 37% said it had not gone far enough.

Donald McBride, a 28-year-old independent in Plano, Texas, said he voted for Trump but opposed going to war with Iran.

“I would like the war to end,” McBride said. “The original objective of the war was to end the Iranian regime, and that’s just not possible. I don’t really know why we’d continue fighting.”

Joan Jones, a 64-year-old independent in northwest Florida, described the attacks as part of a defensive effort tied to nuclear risk.

“Those attacks are ultimately to protect us from nuclear attacks,” Jones said. “I think we have to go through that … and eliminate that worry so we don’t have that hovering over us.”

Still, the dispute over Iran isn’t the only political divide in the poll. The survey found fewer Americans approve of Trump’s handling of other issues too. About one-third, 34%, of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Israel, amid rising tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump. The president has criticized recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which jeopardized negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

James Huffman, a 69-year-old Republican in Medway, Ohio, said Trump’s strategy with Netanyahu is not effective.

“Netanyahu is not going to do everything Trump wants. He’s going to do what he wants,” Huffman said. “I just don’t think it’s effective.”

Economy approval is similarly stuck. About one-third of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to the economy, roughly in line with last month.

Jones. the Florida independent. said she believes the economy is improving. pointing to busy tourist traffic and lines she’s seen in her area for major retailers and restaurants. “I think President Trump’s policies are contributing to a better economy,” Jones said. “I can hardly leave the house some hours without getting stuck in the traffic of tourists headed to the beach on vacation.” She also cited lines around the block for Starbucks. McDonalds and Chick-fil-A in her community.

Others were more skeptical. Patricia Bailey, a 42-year-old Republican in Parkersburg, West Virginia, said she sees prices that have become impossible to ignore.

“I just said the other night, ordering pizza is for rich people,” Bailey said. She voted for Trump but added. “He’s kind of let me down a little bit.” Bailey said she believes even if high prices came before Trump. he did not live up to his pledge to improve the economy. “I think he got so distracted with the war that he forgot some old promises,” she said.

The AP-NORC poll included 3,040 adults and was conducted June 11-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Trump Iran AP-NORC poll U.S. approval rating Strait of Hormuz U.S. naval blockade U.S. military action Israel economy