Iran war: Enten unpacks the 'confusing polling picture' in US

want to take a closer look at what the American  public is thinking about what's going on in Iran. With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry.  Harry, what are you seeing? Yes, John. Look, we've gotten a bunch of polling back since the US  military started its most recent action against Iran. And you know what? It's a bit of a confusing  picture. It doesn't seem like one at first, but it's a bit of a confusing polling picture.  Let's just take a look right now at the overall average of polls. Okay. View of US military  action in Iran and you take an average of CNN, Fox, Ipsos, and NBC polls. What you see here  is you see that the clear majority of Americans disapprove of the action. We're talking about  51% of Americans disapprove. Just 40% approve. And I should note all of these polls, all these  polls came in between February 28th, they started on February 28th and then ended by March 3. Now,  you see this, you see this 11point split, but this actually hides some major disagreements between  the different polls. Why do I say that? Take a look here. Okay, this is the net approval rating.  That's the approval rating minus the disapproval rating. And this is the net approval rating for  US military action in Iran. Look at this. CNN, our own CNN poll shows that the net approval rating  is minus 18 points. Very similar to the Ipsos polling at -6 points. But then all of a sudden,  you see the NBC News polling and look at this. You see it at - 11 points, getting a little bit  more popular. And then you look at the latest Fox News poll and that's a a split, a dead even split  at zero points. So yes, on average the polling is showing that the move is unpopular, but that  actually hides major disagreements between the polling. And I should note the polling questions  pretty similar and all conducted at about the same time. So I'm not exactly sure what's going on,  but there's another reason why, John, you should take these initial numbers with a grain of salt  because I want to go back to the June air strikes, right? net approval rating US military action  in Iran after the June air strikes. Initially in late June, look at this underwater at minus  eight points. But by July, look at that. After the military option was deemed successful, it  became much more popular. Now, we're just going to have to wait and see with this current military  action in Iran how exactly the polling shifts. But right now, I would really take the numbers with  a grain of salt, keeping in mind that there's big polling disagreement and the numbers may  change down the road. John, back to you. Harry, thank you very much for that. Yes, polling  does often track what people think is a successful or not successful operation. One of the more  interesting splits that we're seeing in the polling when it comes to the US military action  in Iran is that between the overall public and those who are either currently or have served in  the military. Take a look at this Fox News poll that came out during the past week. Net approval  rating of the current US military action against Iran. Look at that. Overall, Fox News shows a  dead even split. But look at those who served in the military. Significantly higher support for  the US military action currently going on in Iran at plus 20 points. That should not be so much of  a surprise because take a look at how they view Trump's foreign policy overall. Again, look  at those who served in the US military versus overall. If you look at Trump's foreign policy  overall, the net approval rating on that per Fox News, those who served in the military, they like  what's going on on average. Look at that. The net approval rating plus eight points for Trump's  foreign policy. But look at those overall, way, way down there at minus 20 points. We're talking  about a nearly 30 point gap between those who served in the military and overall. And this split  when it comes to those who served in the military and overall dates back to Trump's elections  all the way back to 2016. But let's look at the 2024 numbers. Look at this 2024 results. Those  who served in the military, Trump won them by, get this, 31 points. Kla Harris actually won all  other voters by two points. And that means Johnny Burman, that means that Donald Trump only won in  2024 because of support from those who served in the military. Whatever happened to Trump when he  ran on the campaign trail said that, you know, the whole MAGA thing, remember that? Make America  great again. It wasn't really supposed to be going after country after country after country. I I  don't recall hearing that much on the campaign trail, but just look at the number of targets,  military actions in Trump's second term. There was, of course, Venezuela, Nigeria, Somalia.  I mean, the list goes on and on. And now Cuba. Yeah. Um, he ran as an isolationist. He is  the opposite of that. And that's actually why I think he's getting a lot of support  from Republicans on the Hill because this is this traditional neocon conservative belief  of of American interventionalism. And he's doing exactly that and going past beyond just  your neocon. Yeah. No, no question about it. I think a lot of people will be surprised a year ago  thinking to see this what's happening right now. While the Trump administration is committed  to the war with Iran, many Americans are not. Demonstrators gathered in New York City,  Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco this weekend, calling on the White House to end  the military action and pursue diplomacy with Iran instead. Some Iranian-American demonstrators  shared their fears of a prolonged war, worried the conflict would drag on indefinitely. Many voiced  their relief that the Islamic regime and Ayatollah leadership may finally be be at its end. But  others insist that any political change in Iran must come from the Iranian people themselves to  be sustainable. The largest community of Iranian expatriots in the United States is rallying in  Los Angeles. seen as Julia Vargas Jones was there earlier. So Julia, how are people there reacting  to the conflict? Well, John, like any diaspora, there is a fragmentation of ideas, but today  what we saw here in the streets of Los Angeles was a a celebration truly. Uh people are thanking  President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for these strikes in Iran. They see this as a  pivotal moment, an opportunity for the regime to fall. But we have spoken to a variety of  people here in what is known as Terranulus. Take a listen to what they said. Almost the same  time I'm fighting against this regime. I was a anti-war activist. So that's very complicated.  Of course from the killing of the I am excited. I cannot hide my feeling. Word with no harmony  is better for everyone. But at the same time, I don't like the war. So you would rather see this  be wrapped up and be done now saying yeah right now that's already that's we are moving forward  how many is dead that's a good thing declared the Victorian league President Trump although we're  thankful to him took him a little bit a long time and the Iranians lost a lot of lives and I think  now he has to finish it. I never had so much mixed feeling in my life that I have right now because  on one level I want my country to be free and liberated. On another level I am very sad when  I see so many people of my country are killed. And John, we're here in a street where business  after business has signs in English and in Farsy. uh not even uh close to a better visualization  of how split this community is. Right here we have pictures that activists say are of people  who were killed by the regime in Iran with the word stop war graffitied over it. That's how  fragmented it all is here in in this enormous community in Southern California. John,  yeah, it really is very possible to have very complicated emotions all over this. Really  interesting to hear from the people that you were speaking with there. Julius Vargas Jones,  thank you so much for sharing your reporting.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten runs the numbers of American popular opinion on the Iran war. Meanwhile, CNN's Julia Vargas Jones speaks to Iranians in Los Angeles about the US-Israeli war with Iran. 0:00 Polls show mixed results on Trump's Iran war 2:28 Enten breaks down the numbers among veterans, non-vets 3:52 Inside Politics panel: 60% of voters disapprove of Trump on foreign policy 4:43 Protesters across US call for end of Iran war 5:27 War creates mixed emotions among the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles Watch more CNN here: https://cnn.it/4kh5RPe #IranWar #HarryEnten #News