Most of the country believes the monthslong war between the United States and Iran has failed to achieve its goals and views it as an unsustainable attrition, according to a new poll.
A Marquette Law School Supreme Court poll conducted at the end of July found that 88% of respondents said the U.S. has “not achieved its goals” compared to 12% who said the war has been a success. Additionally, 75% said the war has not been “worth the cost,” and 25% said it has been an effort well spent.
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Throughout the war, which recently hit the five-month mark, President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the ultimate goal was to ensure Tehran would never obtain a nuclear weapon. The Trump administration has offered what critics have called contradictory status updates about Iran’s military capabilities, as well as the state of its nuclear program.
Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth have said Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been diminished and its military destroyed since the early days of the war, but as they have made such claims, Iran has carried out deadly attacks against U.S. forces and continued to attack ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. A failed memorandum of understanding also included terms for Tehran and Washington to remove nuclear material from Iran despite Trump’s championing of Operation Midnight Hammer’s success in ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Additionally, the war has affected the cost of living for Americans. The major side effect of the conflict has been the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s oil supply moves. The strait’s closure has sent prices upward in the homeland and rattled the global economy.
On Tuesday, Trump said Iran and Oman are nearing a resolution on the strait, adding that the waterway will “be open very soon, or they’re going to get hit very hard, and then the strait’s going to be open.”
The war has also come with a human cost, as 14 U.S. troops have been killed in action and 417 injured as a result of Operation Epic Fury, the administration’s name for the conflict, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System. Two additional troops were killed in Jordan, and another in Iraq, but were removed from the DCAS’s Operation Epic Fury page.
UPDATED ESTIMATED COST OF IRAN WAR IS $37.5 BILLION: HEGSETH
As for the actual monetary cost of the war, Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee last month that the conflict has a $37.5 billion price tag. The cost was detailed during a hearing in which Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified about a supplemental budget request of $67 billion for the War Department.
The war also poses a significant roadblock for the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections, in which the party is vying to maintain its narrow advantage in the House, as well as control of the Senate.
