It's not Iran. It's the gas prices.

The real worries about AI, Gen Z thinks the job market is a scam, Ok Boomer Democrats, the left-electability nexus, Black Dem conservatives, Governorships shift left, Monitoring the Situation-maxxing

No. 395 | March 20, 2026

⛽ Americans don’t hate the Iran strikes. They hate what comes next at the pump.

Military action against Iran isn’t especially unpopular: in our latest omnibus, approval of U.S. military operations against Iran runs at a net -6 (43% support, 49% oppose) — better than Trump’s overall job approval (net -16) and far better than his foreign policy numbers (net -21). We also found that actual support for the strikes outpaces support for a theoretical Iran strike from January, essentially the same thing we saw before and after the Venezuela operation.

Despite the MAGA base actually being united on Iran, and the not-terrible numbers on the strike itself, Trump’s approval is at a new low. And the reason why seems pretty clear: rising gas prices from the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz striking an affordability raw nerve. While Venezuela was a long-term net positive for U.S. energy supply, Iran is a short term net negative. Americans can be relatively deferential to a Pre…