According to the latest Harvard Harris poll, 51% of Americans support U.S./Israel airstrikes on the Iranian regime, and 54% say the campaign is “justified.”

Photo: by IDF.

• Republican support for Operation Epic Fury is overwhelmingly high at 79% (and a whopping 87% among self-defined “MAGA voters”), up from only 59% before the war.

• Even Democrat support stands at 26%, up from 19% and Independents are at 46%, up from 26%.

• Overall support for strikes on Iran stands at 51%, a narrow majority, but dramatically up from only 29% before the war.

Most importantly, not only do most Americans support U.S./Israeli action in Iran, but that support is increasing over time.

Why is support for Operation Epic Fury increasing?

In a word: knowledge. As Americans have come to understand the importance of the operation, the significant threat posed by the Iranian regime, and its bloody history against both Americans and American allies, public support has increased. Americans are also beginning to perceive the operation has having concrete, understandable objectives, and they feel a sense of overall success.

To be clear, this is merely not our opinion, but rather the overall trend of American public opinion.

Traditionally, Americans are especially wary of wars they don’t understand, and of wasteful deaths that appear to serve no purpose Yet Americans can also be strongly supportive of a cause they believe in, even when it involves sacrifice (such as World War II), and not surprisingly, Americans tend to feel very good about winning.

Photo: Strike on IBRB, the official Iranian regime broadcasting network, photo from June, 2025 by Avash Media via Wikimedia Commons.

Iran has always known that it could not defeat America in a direct military confrontation, at least not before completing its ballistic missile shield and nuclear umbrella. Yet the regime also knows that in a democracy, military might is only as strong as the public will behind it. By sowing division and fear, Iran has bought itself 47 years of relative safety from the West. It seems that era has ended:

• The President’s Republican base and the “MAGA movement” are more united than ever before, and support even among Democrats and independents is growing.

• If the Islamic regime had hoped to terrify the Arab Gulf states through missile attacks, that has dramatically “backfired” (excuse the pun!) In a rare triumph of common sense, the Gulf states have finally allied with the powers that are protecting them (the United States and Israel) rather than the Iranian regime that is firing on them.

• If Iran had hoped to divide Israelis through sheer exhaustion – well we’re certainly exhausted from lack of sleep, but we’re also united across all party lines. We are optimistic that this campaign will build a better, safer future for us all, and both our military efforts and public support reflect this belief.

It seems the Iranian regime has vastly underestimated us all, except perhaps for an increasingly irrelevant cadre of some (though not all) European leaders.

Are the polls correct?

One way to double check is through personal experience.

RealityCheck asked a number of reliable friends and colleagues for their subjective, anecdotal perception of the “mood” in their respective communities. We typically don’t trust personal perceptions in a vacuum, but as an adjunct to polling data, personal intuition can provide valuable, additional insight.

Here’s what we learned:

Californians perceive strong opposition against attacks on Iran, in fact the mood is so overwhelming, that many Californians find it hard to believe that anyone in America feels differently. Yet we also asked people in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, Connecticut, Atlanta, and Miami. All responded the same: that views seem to be divided among party lines, but not overwhelming in either direction. This perception appears to align with the polling data.

Want to share your own perceptions of your community? Please reach out to us by email at: contact@realitycheckresearch.org to share your thoughts! Your insight helps us do our work.

When examining the reliability of polls, we keep an eye out for “priming.” For example, before asking its questions, the Yougov polling group often points out frightening reasons to oppose military action, such as rising gas prices or potential dangers to theoretical U.S. ground troops. This roundabout way of asking a question tends to produce lower apparent support, for obvious reasons.

The Harvard-Harris polls have the most straightforward methodology we’ve found on this topic, with a minimum of priming. Most importantly, the trend of rising support is an “apples to apples” comparison, by the same Harvard Harris pollsters, using the same methodologies over time.

What about the rescue of the Air Force crew?

All of this data was collected before the dramatic rescue of two U.S. Air Force crew members, which culminated late last night in a stunning and successful extraction, deep in enemy territory and under heavy enemy fire. We look forward to seeing how these events impact public opinion.

Got questions? We’ve got answers!

We recently gave a thorough talk by Zoom to the Volunteers for Israel organization, including a deep dive into the details of this operation and our view “on the ground” from Israel, which you can find at THIS LINK or by clicking the image below.

In the coning days we will write up a summary of some of our insights from this talk to help you better understand the latest developments. Meanwhile, we’d love to hear your questions so our next article can directly answer what you find most important!

Please reach out to us by email at: contact@realitycheckresearch.org to ask your questions and we will be ready to respond!