According to a recent YouGov poll conducted for Yahoo from June 26 to 30, 2025, with 1,597 American adults, only 22% of Americans believe President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. airstrikes on July 2, 2024, led to the “complete and total destruction of Iran’s key nuclear facilities.” The poll found that just 31% of Americans think the U.S. attacks on Iran will ultimately “do more good than harm,” while a significantly larger 49% believe these aggressive strikes “will do more harm than good.”
Yahoo News reported that this poll, consistent with several others, shows that “the American public harbors serious doubts about the effectiveness of Trump’s decision last month to drop over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities.” (The U.S. also targeted Iran’s third nuclear facility in Esfahan with Tomahawk missiles.)
Trump and his allies repeatedly claimed after the strikes on Iran’s three nuclear facilities that they achieved their goal of “destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.” However, subsequent reports suggested that Iran likely transferred its enriched uranium stockpiles to another location before the attacks, and the U.S. bombings only partially damaged Iran’s nuclear program, leaving parts of it intact.
U.S. media heavily criticized Trump for launching these aggressive attacks, despite his campaign portrayal as a “candidate of peace” who promised to keep America out of foreign wars. The poll showed 41% of Americans approve of the aggressive strikes, while 42% oppose them. Among Republicans, 79% supported the attacks, while 71% of Democrats opposed them. Among independents, 50% were opposed, and 35% were in favor.
Furthermore, 43% of Americans believe Trump “went too far” in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, while 35% said his decision was “correct,” and 8% felt it was “not enough.” The poll also revealed that only 37% of Americans approve of “the president’s handling of the Iran-Israel war,” while 54% disapprove.
Notably, 47% of Americans support the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, while 25% oppose it. A significant 54% disapprove of the U.S. withdrawal from the deal during Trump’s first term, with only 20% supporting the exit.
Only 39% of Americans believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that “Iran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon within months, certainly less than a year.” Similarly, just 36% approve of Israel’s “attacks on Iran’s key nuclear facilities” and “assassination of several senior Iranian nuclear scientists.”
Only 19% of Americans believe the aggressive attacks on Iran have made the U.S. safer, while over twice as many, 47%, say the attacks have reduced U.S. security. About 22% believe the attacks made no difference to U.S. security.
On June 24, 2025, Reuters and other media outlets reported, based on U.S. intelligence estimates, that the U.S. attacks blocked the entrances to two of Iran’s key nuclear facilities but did not destroy their underground structures, resulting in “only a few months’ delay in Iran’s nuclear program.” The Trump administration strongly contested this assessment and threatened those who leaked the report. According to the YouGov poll, 36% of Americans believe this intelligence estimate, 25% disagree, and 38% are “unsure.”
Overall, only 30% of Americans believe the stated goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity was achieved in the aggressive attacks, but among this group, 21% say the impact is temporary, and only 5% consider it permanent.
