National Defense

Majority Of GOP Voters Believe Iran Was Not Imminent Threat, New Poll Finds

Screenshot/YouTube/Joe Kent

Most Republican voters believe Iran was not actually an imminent threat to the U.S., according to a Democracy Institute poll released Monday.

Fifty-three percent of Republicans agreed with the statement that Iran “was not an imminent threat to America,” compared to 41% who disagreed, according to the newly released poll shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Meanwhile, 75% of Democrats said they agreed with the statement and 18% disagreed, the survey found. 

The vast majority of respondents, 65%, said they think Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S., while 29% said they think the country did pose a threat, according to the survey.

The latest Democracy Institute survey also shows that just 31% of all U.S. voters think the ongoing Iran War was a “national security necessity,” compared to 63% who said it is a “costly mistake.”

Of Democrats surveyed, 73% said the war in Iran is a costly mistake, while 25% said it is necessary for the U.S.’ national security, according to the poll. The survey found that 52% of Republicans think the war is an expensive mistake, and 46% think it is a national security necessity.

Additionally, 54% of self-identified MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republican voters said they think the Iran War is imperative for U.S. national security, while 43% said it was a mistake, according to the survey. By comparison, 31% of self-classified “America First” Republican voters said the war is needed for national security, while 65% think it is a major mistake.

Of self-described MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Republicans surveyed, only 24% said the Iran War was a national security necessity, compared to 73% who said it was a costly mistake, the poll suggests.

The poll’s release comes after the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of senior officials.

Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, abruptly stepped down from his role on March 17, saying in an X post announcing his resignation that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.”

“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in the social media post.

Kent told Tucker Carlson during a March 18 interview on “The Tucker Carlson Show” that Israel “drove the decision to take this action, which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate.”

“Now I think there’s a potential there where we could’ve done several different things,” Kent added. “We could’ve simply said to the Israelis, ‘no, you will not. And if you do, then we will take something away from you.’ I think that it’s fine that we offer defense to Israel, but when we’re providing the means for their defense, we get to dictate the terms of when they go on the offensive, otherwise they stand to lose that relationship.”

An Emerson College poll released on Friday notably found that most U.S. voters think President Donald Trump’s administration is not sticking to his 2024 campaign pledge to put “America first.”

The Democracy Institute poll was conducted from March 20-22, and surveyed 1,500 likely U.S. voters. The poll’s party identification model is Republican +1, and the survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 3% at the 95% confidence interval.