Fox News Poll: Views are divided on US action against Iran
Voters are divided on U.S. military action against Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk.
A new Fox News national survey finds 61% think Iran poses “a real national security threat” to the United States. That view is similar to most previous Fox News surveys since 2006. The notable exception was when concern hit 73% last June, right before the U.S. military mission against Iranian nuclear facilities called Operation Midnight Hammer.
Even though a majority views Iran as a danger to the country, that concern does not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approve and 50% disapprove.
In addition, 51% think President Trump’s handling of Iran has made the U.S. less safe, up from 43% last July. Twenty-nine percent say he’s made the U.S. safer. By comparison, when the same question was asked about former President Biden in 2023, 50% said his handling of Iran had made the U.S. less safe, while 12% said safer.
FOX NEWS POLL: BEYOND RED VS. BLUE, FINDING ME + YOU ACROSS THE POLITICAL DIVIDE
Among Republicans, more than 8 in 10 approve of the current U.S. use of force, while only 6 in 10 say the president’s actions on Iran are making the U.S. safer.
Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats disapprove of the U.S. strikes and think things are less safe because of Trump’s performance, while 6 in 10 or more independents think the same on both counts.
Among voters who have served in the military, 59% approve of the U.S. strikes on Iran (39% disapprove). Compared to voters overall, who say the U.S. is less safe by a wide margin, veterans are more closely divided on the question of whether Trump’s actions have made the country safer (37%) or less safe (44%).
In a joint effort with Israel, the United States started launching strikes on Iran on Saturday morning as part of a mission called “Operation Epic Fury.” All survey interviews were conducted after the bombings began, from Saturday through Monday.
Trump’s job rating on foreign policy is underwater by 20 points, as 40% approve and 60% disapprove — including 21% of Republicans who disapprove.
Some 43% of voters approve of Trump’s overall job performance, while 57% disapprove. In January and December, it was 44% approve vs. 56% disapprove.
Perceptions of how the United States is viewed abroad have improved slightly since the end of the Biden administration. While a majority of 56% say the country is less respected around the world than it was four years ago, that’s an improvement from 61% who said the same in 2024 under former President Biden. Meanwhile, 30% say the U.S. is more respected, up from 23% under Biden and 29% during Trump’s first term.
Two-thirds of voters are generally concerned that Trump’s use of executive orders and acting without Congressional approval may be permanently altering the country’s system of checks and balances. The results are nearly identical to when this same question was asked about Barack Obama during his presidency.
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The survey also revisited attitudes about last June’s U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. When asked to think back, voters are closely divided between saying those strikes were mostly successful (30%) and mostly a failure (31%), but the most common answer is it’s too soon to say (37%). That’s about the same as views in July 2025, immediately following the strikes.
As Iran’s leadership shifts amid war, Hezbollah moves to reset the balance: expert
Hezbollah escalated its involvement in the widening conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel Tuesday, launching long-range missiles from Lebanon within 48 hours of coordinated strikes on Iran amid Operation Epic Fury.
The militant group also declared it was ready for an “open war,” The Associated Press reported.
The Iranian-backed militant group fired rockets into northern Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation, according to The Times of Israel. Two were intercepted by air defenses, the military said.
“Hezbollah is putting everything they have into the fight to add to the challenges Israel will face in this war,” Ross Harrison, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.
“But Hezbollah also knows that if the Iranian regime falls, they could be degraded,” he said before highlighting that “Israel could not totally disarm Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s with Iranian backing during Lebanon’s civil war and has grown into Tehran’s most powerful proxy.
For decades, Iran has funded, armed and trained the group as part of its broader strategy to confront Israel and expand its regional influence.
“Iran believes that it has to reestablish deterrence before the end of this war with the U.S. and Israel, so expanding it using Hezbollah and attacking Gulf Arab states and Cyprus is part of this,” Harrison warned.
Israel responded to Hezbollah’s escalation with additional airstrikes on Beirut and expanded its ground operations, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) taking positions near the border.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon reported seeing Israeli troops enter and exit Lebanese territory, though the IDF insisted its forces continue to operate there, according to The Associated Press.
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The U.S. Embassy in Beirut also announced Tuesday that it would close until further notice in a post on X.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “To prevent the possibility of direct fire at Israeli communities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to advance and hold additional dominant terrain in Lebanon and defend the border communities from there.
“The IDF continues to operate forcefully against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The terrorist organization is paying and will pay a heavy price for the fire toward Israel.”
“Hezbollah, this is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran. The arms are all over the region,” IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin told Fox News Digital.
“Last night, they launched missiles into Haifa, into a city center in Israel. They started it, they knew the consequences of that.”
The IDF also announced that it had killed Daoud Ali Zadeh, commander of the Iranian Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps, in Tehran.
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The Quds Force acts as a key liaison between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, and Hezbollah leadership, facilitating the transfer of advanced weaponry and enhancing proxy firepower.
“The Quds Force is the arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, responsible for Iran’s relations with its allied militias, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen,” Harrison clarified.
“The Quds Force is the IRGC’s expeditionary force, designed to give Iran strategic depth,” he said.
“They are (or were) significant in managing Iran’s relations with shadowy militia organizations, and it has been challenged over the last couple of years as Hamas and Hezbollah have been degraded.”
On Saturday, the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign had also targeted Iranian leadership in Tehran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dramatically escalating tensions across the Middle East and triggering regional retaliation.
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An interim Leadership Council made up of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi is temporarily in charge of Iran, acting as the de facto head of state.
“If Iran ends the war prematurely, then they believe the U.S. and Israel can come back later,” Harrison said.
“If they escalate, then they have a shot at recreating deterrence. It is a high risk, as it could bring them down. But the danger is they feel they have little choice, and Hezbollah is part of this for Iran.
“If the Iranian regime can hang on, they win. That said, Iran cannot win militarily, but if they can deny the U.S. a victory, they win.
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“Fundamentally, the Iranian regime is trying to increase the pain of both Israel and the Gulf Arab states to be able to reestablish deterrence lost since the June 2025 war,” Harrison added.
“Attacking civilian areas and economic pain points alongside Hezbollah is also part of this strategy.”
Trump dismisses Iran World Cup concerns amid ongoing military strikes: ‘I really don’t care’
The Iranian soccer federation has a bleak outlook on participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup after joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against the country entered a fourth day Tuesday.
The tournament, which is being hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada later this summer, has Iran scheduled to kick off its Group G schedule in June in Los Angeles.
But President Donald Trump doesn’t care if Iran decides to pull out of the tournament later this year.
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“I really don’t care,” Trump told Politico Tuesday when asked about Iran’s participation in the World Cup. “I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.”
Iran was the first team to qualify for the World Cup, yet FIFA says it will continue to monitor the situation.
“What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Iran’s football federation President Mehdi Taj told sports portal Varzesh3 Sunday. “The US regime has attacked our homeland, and this is an incident that will not go unanswered.”
Trump previously mentioned that athletes, staff members and family members would receive an exemption from countries on the banned list to enter the U.S. for the tournament. However, with attacks intensifying in the Middle East, that could change leading up to the tournament.
And there’s even a chance these two teams would face each other in a World Cup elimination game if they both finish second in their respective groups. And that game would be played in Dallas.
Since the U.S. and Israel’s strike Saturday, Iran has responded by firing missiles and drones at Israel and at countries that host U.S. allies or military bases, including Bahrain and Qatar.
The strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials, including Defense Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, armed forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, and the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Pakpour.
While the men’s team doesn’t know what its World Cup future holds, the Iranian women’s soccer team made a statement Monday during the opening match of the Women’s Asian Cup after players refused to sing while their national anthem, which was played over the speakers at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.
The players were in their customary line before their match against South Korea when the Iranian national anthem began to play. The women, looking straight ahead and barely moving, were stoic, and it appeared there were jeers from the crowd. Later, applause erupted from those in attendance after the 3-0 South Korea victory.
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Iran’s manager, Marziyeh Jafari, also smiled as she witnessed her players’ silence from the sideline.
After Iran’s World Cup opener, it is scheduled to face Belgium in Los Angeles June 21 and Egypt in Seattle June 26.