Majority of Americans Oppose the Iran War
Six months after the United States began military operations against Iran, a majority of Americans now oppose the war. The reasons show up every time someone fills a gas tank or opens a grocery receipt.
New polling finds that 54% of Americans oppose U.S. military action against Iran, the highest level of opposition since the war began. Nearly three in five say the war has not been worth it.
The war is being felt at home
The war's costs are landing in family budgets. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has hit $4.37, more than a dollar higher than the $3.19 drivers were paying a year ago. Six states — California, Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Alaska — are averaging above $5 a gallon.
For a family that fills a 15-gallon tank twice a week, that's roughly $35 more every week than it was last September, or about $150 a month. That money used to go toward groceries, a kid's activity, or a little breathing room. Now it goes into the tank.
The spikes trace directly to the conflict. Volatility in the Strait of Hormuz has pushed crude oil back toward $100 a barrel for the first time since July. Attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and disruptions to tanker traffic have constrained global supply, and Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline has been shut down. The increase in gas prices since the war began has already cost Americans more than $50 billion.
Everything else costs more too
Gas is the most visible cost, but it isn't the only one. When fuel gets expensive, so does everything that has to be shipped, flown, or grown.
Overall prices rose 3.4% over the past year, and energy is doing most of the damage. Gasoline is up 27% from a year ago and fuel oil is up 52%, a warning sign for families in the Northeast and Midwest heading into heating season. Gasoline alone accounted for more than a third of August's price increase. Airfares and shipping costs are climbing, and economists warn higher fuel costs are starting to bleed into other goods and services.
At the grocery store, the relief families were promised hasn't arrived. The USDA estimates a family of two adults and two children now spends about $1,013 a month on groceries even on its most bare-bones "thrifty" plan. Beef prices are forecast to rise nearly 10% this year. 76% of Americans say the cost of living is their biggest financial problem, and said they've changed what they buy at the grocery store to stay within budget.
The polling captures the gap between what Americans want from Washington and what they see happening. Sixty percent say they want leaders focused on inflation and the cost of living, and 46% want a focus on jobs and the economy. Half of Americans say President Trump and Congress are most focused on foreign conflicts instead.
Among the 2024 Trump voters who now say they regret their vote, the two most cited reasons are the war with Iran and his foreign policy decisions (45%) and prices and the cost of living (43%). Asked in an open-ended question what first made them doubt their choice, two of the words that came up most were "prices" and "war."
For many Americans, the two issues are not separate. The war is the cost of living.
