Polls released this week make it pretty clear how Americans are thinking about the conflict with Iran. One new national survey shows a lot of voters suspect the war kicked off, at least partly, to shift attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein debacle that erupted during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The survey, conducted by Data for Progress between March 6 and 8, interviewed 1,272 likely voters via an online panel. Drop Site News and Zeteo paid for the whole project, says Raw Story.
When asked if Trump was “at least partly motivated to take military action against Iran in order to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” most people said yes. The numbers spoke for themselves. Fifty-two percent agreed. Forty percent disagreed. Eight percent of the people polled said they weren’t sure.
The Washington Post is saying that calling the US war in Iran “Operation Epstein Fury” is antisemitic. pic.twitter.com/gsJdn79f4E
— HatsOff (@HatsOffff) March 11, 2026
The wording of the question matters here. The poll didn’t ask if the entire war was about Epstein — just whether people thought the scandal influenced the timing.
That perception took off online almost immediately. In just a few days after the first strikes, critics and meme-makers started calling the military campaign, officially named “Operation Epic Fury,” “Operation Epstein Fury.” The phrase caught on fast. The Anti-Defamation League found it popped up over 90,000 times on X in the first three days of the conflict. About 60,000 unique accounts used it.
Looking closer, the polling numbers split pretty sharply by politics. For Democrats, the Epstein angle was overwhelming. About eight in ten people believed the scandal played a role, while just 14 percent didn’t. Independents matched the national average, with just over half seeing a connection, while 40 percent disagreed percent disagreeing.
Republicans saw things differently. Only 26 percent thought the Epstein files had anything to do with the conflict. Sixty-four percent said no way, which shouldn’t come as a surprise since a recent NBC poll showed that Trump is still more popular than Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom.
Age made a difference too. People under 45 were much more likely to think the war was tied to Epstein — 66 percent agreed. On the contrary, just 26 percent disagreed. Older voters were more doubtful.
Most Americans believe Trump started a war with Iran to distract from the Epstein Files. https://t.co/OdXn5InPz3 pic.twitter.com/dAjQ3CwOAl
— Katieydidd Katieydidd (@katieydidd) March 13, 2026
The poll also looked at how people felt about the war in general. Fifty-five percent disapproved of military action against Iran, while forty-two percent approved. Those numbers stack the conflict up as one of the least popular early-stage wars in recent U.S. history. Opinions usually change as the conflict drags on, especially depending on casualties, costs, and goals.
Another question tried to assess whether people expect the war to hit their daily lives. Forty-nine percent said it’ll make things harder for them. Only 10 percent thought things might get better. As far as people’s worries, they were most concerned about energy prices and global uncertainty.
In a separate question, voters were almost split on who Trump listens to more — American voters or Israeli interests. The results were surprisingly close. Forty-seven percent picked American voters, forty-six percent picked Israel. The difference was only one percent.
Researchers pointed out that all these numbers came from a volatile week with international markets jumping around. They were also polled just after the first airstrikes. But, public opinion on war can change fast as events unfold.
For now, the numbers show that a large share of Americans questioning the motives behind the conflict. And even though “Operation Epstein Fury” started as a joke online, polling shows many Americans have taken the idea seriously.
