Stunning poll reveals what Americans think of Trump's Iran war: 'Operation Epstein fury'
A majority of Americans believe that President Donald Trump launched his administration’s unprecedented attack on Iran last month at least in part to “distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” a shocking new poll from Data for Progress revealed this week, leaving several media figures stunned.
Dubbed Operation Epic Fury, the Trump administration’s military campaign against Iran has been routinely mocked as “Operation Epstein Fury,” a reference to the ongoing scandal that has rocked Trump’s second presidency.
According to a report from the Anti-Defamation League, the phrase “Epstein Fury” was mentioned on the social media platform X more than 90,000 times within Operation Epic Fury’s first three days. The organization went on to characterize the reference as “antisemitic,” per reporting from The Washington Post.
However, according to a new poll conducted by the left-leaning think tank and polling firm Data for Progress, a 52-40 majority of American voters agreed with the statement that Trump was “at least partly motivated to take military action against Iran in order to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” Drop Site News reported, which along with Zeteo funded the poll and helped craft its questions.
“This is why the Washington Post was freaking out about people calling this ‘Operation Epstein Fury,’” wrote The Nation writer Jeet Heer in a social media post on X recently. “It's not just that this war is historically unpopular at this early a stage, but also that people don't see it as legitimate.”
Paul Blest, a journalist and producer for More Perfect Union, took the poll’s findings as a sign of unsustainable turmoil within the United States’ political system.
“The longer this war continues, the more likely it is that this country completely implodes,” Blest wrote in a social media post on X.
Unsurprisingly, the poll results differed greatly when broken down by party affiliation. Democratic voters indicated a margin of 81-14 that they believed Trump launched an attack on Iran in part to distract from the Epstein scandal. Independent voters mirrored the cumulative findings exactly at a margin of 52-40.
Republican voters, however, overwhelmingly rejected the idea that Trump’s attack on Iran was motivated by the Epstein scandal, with just 26% saying it was launched as a distraction versus 64% who indicated it wasn’t.
When broken down by age, younger voters overwhelmingly sided with the idea that Trump’s Iran war was, in fact, a distraction operation, at least in part.
“For those under 45, it is approaching an article of faith, with a 66%-26% majority agreeing with the idea,” Drop Site News reported. “But even a quarter of Republicans told pollsters Trump launched the war as a distraction from Epstein.”🚨A new survey finds that by a 50-42% margin, American voters believe Donald Trump went to war with Iran at least in part to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Poll of 1,200# likely voters conducted by DFP and paid for by Drop Site & Zeteo https://t.co/jMBCsHREqp pic.twitter.com/6sbVmWjuBj
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 11, 2026
