Election Polls: Americans Want Congress to End Iran War

The latest election polls carry a blunt message for Washington: most Americans want the new Congress to move fast to end the war in Iran and to roll back the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. A fresh Reuters/Ipsos survey, completed on Monday, found that 71 percent of Americans want Congress to pass legislation ending the conflict with Iran, a war the president launched alongside the United States' ally Israel in February. The same survey found that 62 percent would support an effort to repeal the tariffs the Trump administration placed on imported goods. Voters are tired of the war and of the prices it helped push up, and they expect the newly elected Democratic majorities to act on both fronts as soon as they take power.

The poll was conducted in the days immediately after last week's midterm elections 2026, in which Democrats won their largest majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives since at least 2008, in a sharp rebuke of the president's Republican Party over high costs and a deeply unpopular war. Democrats will take power when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3. The survey suggests the public has clear expectations for what that new Congress should do first, and those expectations cut across party lines.

What the Reuters/Ipsos Election Polls Found

The survey was conducted online and nationwide over four days, gathering responses from 1,705 adults across the United States, with a margin of error of about two percentage points. The central finding is the scale of the majority that wants the war ended by law: 71 percent of Americans said they want Congress to pass legislation bringing the conflict with Iran to a close. That majority includes 93 percent of Democrats, but it also includes 51 percent of Republicans, a majority of the president's own party.

The second headline number is nearly as striking. A smaller but still significant share of respondents, 62 percent, said they would support an effort to repeal the tariffs on imports put in place by the Trump administration. The tariffs and the war are linked in the public mind: the war with Iran has pushed fuel prices sharply higher, adding to inflation already driven up by the new taxes the president placed on hundreds of imported goods. For many households, the two policies have arrived as the same experience at the checkout and at the pump.

President Trump has defended both policies throughout, arguing that the war was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and that the tariffs will strengthen American industry by protecting it from cheap imports. Democratic Party leaders have taken the opposite position, vowing to address the cost of living first, to try to force an end to the war, and to end the tariffs. The poll indicates those promises match what most voters want to hear, though the public's patience will be tested by how quickly the new Congress can turn promises into legislation.

Cost of Living Tops the First-100-Days Agenda

If there is one number in the survey that should focus every member of the incoming Congress, it is this: nine in ten respondents said cost of living issues should be a focus for Congress during its first 100 days. Fuel costs have risen sharply since the war began, and the tariffs have added new costs to hundreds of imported goods, a squeeze voters feel every day.

Other issues drew far smaller shares of support as first-100-days priorities, including the regulation of artificial intelligence, immigration reform, and climate change. None came close to the cost of living in the public's ranking. A Congress that spends its opening weeks on other subjects while prices stay high would be ignoring the poll's clearest instruction.

The cost of living theme also runs through the companion findings on the president's standing. In a separate Reuters/Ipsos survey completed on the same Monday, only 21 percent of Americans gave the president a positive rating on his management of the cost of living. The war launched by the president on Iran in February has raised fuel prices sharply and weighed on household finances, and his low rating on the issue hurt his allies in Congress as well.

Trump Approval Rating Near a Career Low

The broader picture of the president's standing is bleak. The Reuters/Ipsos poll put the presidential approval rating at 32 percent, near the lowest level of his political career and unchanged from two earlier surveys conducted between late October and early November. What has changed is the context: the president now faces a Congress controlled by the opposition, with a public that has registered its disapproval at the ballot box.

The details tell a more nuanced story than the headline number alone. On immigration policy, the president's approval stood at 38 percent, considerably higher than the 25 percent rating Americans gave his handling of the economy. Among Republicans, 81 percent supported his approach to immigration, compared with only 50 percent who supported him on the cost of living. That gap captures the central tension of the president's position: the issue on which his base remains most loyal is not the issue that decided the election.

The poll also shows that neither party is particularly popular right now. Some 45 percent of Americans had a favorable view of Democrats, while 51 percent had an unfavorable view. Republicans fared worse: 35 percent favorable and 60 percent unfavorable. The midterm result was less an embrace of the Democratic Party than a rejection of the party in power. For anyone asking who is leading in the polls right now, the honest answer is neither party: both are underwater on favorability, and the Democrats' victory came from voters punishing the party in power.

One smaller finding points to a debate that could matter in the months ahead. Asked which party had a better approach to regulating artificial intelligence, 28 percent picked Democrats and 20 percent picked Republicans, while the rest said they were not sure or that neither party was better. Artificial intelligence regulation is expected to become an important issue for Congress in the coming months, and the poll suggests the public has not yet made up its mind about which party to trust on it.

Bipartisanship, Impeachment, and the Road to January 3

For all the anger the poll registers, it also contains a strong demand for cooperation. Large majorities of people in both political parties said it was important for the president to make an effort to work with Democrats, and for Democratic leaders in the new Congress to try to work with the president. The public wants the war ended and the tariffs repealed, and it wants the two parties to find a way to do that together.

The president said after the elections that he would probably get along with Democrats. At the same time, he promoted Stephen Miller, a polarizing aide who has called the Democratic Party a domestic extremist group, to be his new White House chief of staff. That appointment sends a very different message.

The poll also sounded a note of caution about how Democrats use their new power. Some 42 percent of respondents said it would be bad for the country if the new Congress tried to impeach the president, compared with 33 percent who said it would be good for the country. The rest were not sure or did not answer. That is not a mandate for impeachment. It is, if anything, a warning against it.

Congressional Democrats are divided on how aggressively to target the president, including whether to impeach him or members of his cabinet. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to face a House impeachment vote this week, following a move by a Republican lawmaker. The vote will be an early test of how the incoming majority handles the question, and of whether the party's leadership can hold together a caucus split between those who want confrontation and those who want to focus on the cost of living.

What Happens Next

The calendar now sets the pace. Democrats will take power when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, and the first 100 days after that will be the period by which the public judges them. The poll has effectively written the first draft of that judgment: end the war, repeal the tariffs, and bring the cost of living down.

The war itself remains the most volatile thread in the iran war news cycle. The president said on Monday that the conflict was effectively over from a military standpoint, and that new strikes were unnecessary, even as he insisted that American forces remain ready to act if circumstances change. That declaration, made after his meeting with the prime minister of Qatar, has already moved oil prices lower. But the war has lasted far longer than the weeks the president originally promised when he began it in February, and the negotiations mediated by Qatar have made little progress. A Congress that passes legislation to end the war would be acting on a public demand that is now overwhelming, but it would also be stepping into a conflict where the diplomacy is still unresolved.

The midterm elections 2026 results that produced this new Congress were historic in their scale. Democrats scored their biggest victory in the House of Representatives since at least 2008, and they won the battle for the senate by flipping seats in traditionally conservative states including Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas. The scale of that victory is what gives the new majorities their mandate, and it is also what raises the stakes: voters who handed Democrats power while viewing both parties unfavorably will not be forgiving if the new Congress spends its opening months on internal fights or on impeachment battles the public does not want.

What to watch in the coming weeks is straightforward. The first is the Hegseth impeachment vote, which will show how the new majority handles the question of targeting the administration. The second is whether Democratic leaders move quickly on legislation to end the war and repeal the tariffs, the two actions the poll shows the public wants most. On tariff news, the test is whether repeal moves from promise to floor vote. The third is whether the president's promotion of Stephen Miller to chief of staff signals confrontation or merely noise. And the fourth is whether the cost of living, which nine in ten Americans want at the top of the agenda, actually starts to come down. The longer question is whether voter turnout in the next cycle rewards or punishes what this Congress does. The poll has told Washington what the country wants. The next few months will show whether Washington was listening.

Source: Reuters