Polls suggest most Americans oppose US strikes on Iran

The ongoing US strikes on Iran are drawing opposition from Americans, the latest polls suggest, while rising oil prices are beginning to hit consumers and the cost of the war to taxpayers has been estimated at almost $1 billion per day. 

As many as 56% of Americans oppose the military strikes in Iran, while 44% support them, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll published last Friday.

The poll was conducted in the days after an Iranian drone strike on a command center in Kuwait killed six US soldiers.

Some 44% said Tehran is a major threat to US security, down from 48% last July, another 40% of Americans consider Iran a minor threat and 15% see no threat at all.

A Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters released on Monday showed that 53% of voters oppose the US military action against Iran, while 40% support it.

The poll also showed 74% of voters oppose sending US ground troops into Iran, while 20% support doing so, and 55% of voters do not think Iran posed an imminent military threat to the US before the current US military action against Iran, while 39 percent think Iran posed an imminent military threat.

Another NBC News survey, which began collecting responses a day before the US launched joint strikes with Israel on Iran, published on Sunday showed that 54% of respondents disapproved of Trump's handling of the situation in Iran.

Besides the polls, analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimated that the US strikes in Iran are costing the American taxpayer about $891.4 million per day. 

Though the US is shifting to using "less expensive munitions" and the number of drones and missiles launched by Iran has declined, the organization said in its report that "future costs will depend mostly on the intensity of operations and the effectiveness of Iranian retaliation."

Meanwhile, American consumers are beginning to suffer from the gas and oil price hike.

In a series of online posts since Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom attributed the spike in gas prices to the Trump administration's attacks on Iran, saying they have pushed up crude oil prices and increased costs for drivers across the United States.

"California gas prices were stable for nearly two years after the state cracked down on price spikes. Then Trump started a war with Iran and prices began skyrocketing NATIONWIDE!" the governor's office wrote on its official account on X page on Monday.

The war in Iran has caused a spike in gas prices that is hitting California consumers especially hard, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

AAA reports that in California, the most expensive US market for gas, the average price per gallon on Monday was $5.20, compared with $3.47 nationally. The national average has climbed nearly $0.50 since the conflict began more than a week ago, while in the Golden State it rose by $0.55.

(With input from agencies)