A new Fox News national survey found that 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the war with Iran, nearly seven months into the conflict. That’s the kind of number that tells you the people being asked to live with the consequences don’t believe the people running the war know where it’s going. The apparatus keeps moving. The public sees the drift.
Who Pays for the War
The poll found that 47% of voters say the conflict will make the U.S. less safe in the long run, up from 39% in April. Another 32% think it will make the country safer, while 20% say there will be no difference. Sixty percent said U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while 37% said it was right. That widened the margin to 23 points from 17 points in June, when the split was 58% to 41%.
The biggest shifts against the war came among Hispanic voters, voters under age 30, moderates and voters 65 and over. The rise in concern about the conflict making the U.S. less safe was largest among White voters, voters under 45 and independents. The people farthest from the war room are the ones most likely to live with the fallout.
What the Poll Says About Power
The survey found that 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents and 43% of Republicans said the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the conflict. Trump’s overall job performance stood at 39% approval and 61% disapproval. His foreign policy ratings were underwater by 24 points, with 37% approval, a second-term low and one point above his first-term low of 36% in September 2019.
When asked to name the most important issue facing the country, 4% of voters said Iran and 1% named foreign policy in general, while 34% cited the cost of living. That gap matters. The war machine gets attention from the top, but the daily squeeze lands on everyone else. Rent, food, bills. The usual grind.
By a 10-point margin, more voters said the Democrats are better equipped to handle foreign policy than the Republicans, reversing the previous midterm cycle, when Republicans were more trusted by 6 points in September 2022. Different managers, same hierarchy. The poll doesn’t show a public eager for salvation from either camp. It shows shifting confidence inside the same political cage.
The Other Fronts
On the Israel-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, 48% said they side more with the Israelis than the Palestinians, who drew 38%. That was down from 54% in June and from 68% at the conflict’s outset in October 2023. Since 2023, support for Israel has fallen by at least 20 points among women, Hispanic voters, voters under age 45, voters with a college degree and Democrats. Republican support has fallen 10 points over the same period.
On Ukraine, voters favored continuing U.S. financial aid to fight Russia by 16 points, 55% to 39%, roughly unchanged over the past two years. Democrats favored supporting Ukraine, while Republicans and independents were divided. The money keeps flowing. The arguments keep coming. The people footing the bill don’t get much say beyond a poll response.
Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to the U.S., 45% said Trump is not tough enough on China, 20% said he is too tough and 30% said his approach is about right. The largest shares of Democrats, Republicans and independents all said Trump is not tough enough on China, with Republicans split and 43% saying his approach is about right.
Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson, said, "Typically, the public rallies around the president in response to a foreign policy crisis. But two things are different here. First, President Trump hasn’t consistently and forcefully made the case for the war, and the U.S. doesn’t have boots on the ground. Both of those things matter for public opinion."
The poll was conducted Sept. 11-14, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research. It included interviews with 1,211 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines and cellphones or completed the survey online after receiving a text. The margin of sampling error for the full sample was plus or minus 3 percentage points.