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Americans think Trump will send ground troops to Iran and don't support it, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

On 19 March 2026, Reuters published Americans think Trump will send ground troops to Iran and don't support it, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds. Jason Lange reported from Washington. The page was updated on 20 March. It is a poll of American adults, taken about three weeks after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February 2026. An American family should care because the survey asks the question families ask: will the president send a large ground force into Iran, and do people support that? Reuters says most people expect it, and very few support it. The same article says planners have talked about troops on Iran's coast, and it quotes President Donald Trump denying that he is sending troops.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The numbers come from one Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,545 adults, with a margin of error of about 3 percentage points. The same article records the options then under discussion, US troops on Iran's shoreline and on Kharg Island, from earlier Reuters reporting.

What the article says​

Reuters says the three-day poll closed on Thursday. About 65 percent of Americans believed Trump would order troops into a large-scale ground war in Iran. Just 7 percent supported that idea.

Some 65% of Americans believe U.S. President Donald Trump will order troops into a large-scale ground war in Iran and just 7% support that idea, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday found.

Reuters, 19 March 2026, reporting its own poll with Ipsos.

The article says Trump's job approval was 40 percent, up 1 point from a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken in the hours after the 28 February attack. About 37 percent of Americans approved of the war. About 59 percent disapproved, including about one in five Republicans. Among people asked about the strikes themselves, 77 percent of Republicans approved, compared with 6 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of independents.

On a smaller mission, the split was different. Reuters says 63 percent of Republicans, and 34 percent of Americans overall, would support sending a small number of special forces to Iran. Special forces are small units trained for raids and rescues, not a mass invasion. Fifty-five percent opposed deploying any ground troops, large or small.

Reuters also says the administration has mulled sending thousands of US troops to reinforce the operation in the Middle East. It says those deployments could use air and naval forces to protect oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, or could put US troops on Iran's shoreline. It says the administration has also discussed sending ground forces to Kharg Island, which Reuters calls the hub for 90 percent of Iran's oil exports. Those lines cite a Reuters report from 18 March.

Trump, asked by a reporter on Thursday about his plans, denied a deployment. Reuters says he said he was "not putting troops anywhere," and added, "If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you."

The article says more than 2,000 people had been killed across the Middle East in nearly three weeks of fighting, including 13 US service members. It says strikes on energy plants had pushed energy prices up and revived worry about inflation. It recalls that Trump campaigned on avoiding a stuck foreign war, then struck Venezuela and captured its leader. It says some prominent voices in his MAGA movement had denounced the Iran war and warned it could hurt Republicans in the November midterms.

What other reporting and posts add​

The same day, in Jerusalem and Washington. The poll closed on 19 March, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Jerusalem press conference that toppling Iran's government could not be done from the air alone: "there has to be a ground component, as well. There are many possibilities for this ground component, and I take the liberty of not sharing with you all those possibilities." He did not say whose soldiers. Just the News, 20 March 2026; The Hill, 20 March 2026. A few minutes later, in a USA Today clip of the same exchange, Trump said: "No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops." USA Today video, 19 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v147.md) Common Dreams tied the two stories together in a report on the poll. Common Dreams, 20 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v147.md)

Some posts misquoted Netanyahu that night. Several viral posts put different words in his mouth, such as "There will be boots on the ground in Iran." The press-conference transcript quoted by The Hill and Just the News does not contain that sentence; "there has to be a ground component" is what he said. @realstewpeters, 19 March 2026 (the misquote); @MaxBlumenthal, 19 March 2026 (the accurate short quote, with his own reading that it means American troops). (capture: twitter/t13__v147.md)

The numbers were still being cited six months later. A September 2026 KETV report, as reprinted, repeated the same split, "55 percent would not support deploying any troops inside Iran, 34 percent a targeted operation, 7 percent a large-scale invasion," and said "The White House is not ruling out putting American boots on the ground in Iran as additional troops arrive in the Middle East." The reprint may be recycling a March story, so treat its dating with care. 1st Sky Omaha reprint of KETV, dated 25 September 2026. (capture: twitter/t49__v588.md) For a Quinnipiac poll ten days earlier, see Majority of American voters oppose the Iran war.

What it shows​

Two in three Americans expected their President to order a large ground war in Iran, and only 7 percent wanted one. They had reason to expect it. The same article reports the administration discussing troops on Iran's shoreline and on Kharg Island, and quotes Trump's denial with its own escape hatch: "If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you." That same day in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said "there has to be a ground component," and did not say whose.

The next day CBS reported the Pentagon's detailed ground preparations. See No Boots on the Ground and Congress and the Public.

Check it yourself​

No second source was opened for this page. The 18 March reinforcements report and the Thursday remark by Trump are named only as this article cites them.

Status: Donald Trump is alive.

Why a poll belongs on this page: three weeks into the US-Israeli air war on Iran (it began 28 February 2026), the country was arguing about a next step, sending American soldiers onto Iranian land. Reuters (a global wire service) and Ipsos (a polling company) asked Americans two plain questions: do you think it will happen, and do you want it to? The gap between the two answers is the story.

Research captures: twitter/t13__v147.md, twitter/t49__v588.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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