President Donald Trump’s temporary agreement to halt the conflict with Iran is taking a toll on his approval numbers and drawing fire from across the political aisle — including from many of his own supporters.
Reuters conducted interviews with 18 Americans who cast their ballots for Trump in 2024 — a group the outlet has checked in with each month since he returned to the White House — and found that most have serious reservations about the deal. The agreement has reopened the Strait of Hormuz, temporarily removed U.S. oil sanctions on Iran, and established a $300 billion fund designated for Iran’s reconstruction.
“We need to truly weaken the Iranian regime instead of this, ‘beat them up a little bit and then step back and let them rebuild,’” said Terry Alberta, 65, a pilot from Michigan.
Nationally, just one in four Americans believes the war with Iran was worth the price paid, and most are doubtful that the ceasefire with Tehran will hold, according to the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Several members of the group worried that Trump’s unpopular concessions to Iran could jeopardize Republican control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. However, those most sharply critical of the deal had already begun losing confidence in the president before the war started. Six members of the group still believe Trump has undisclosed plans to topple the Iranian government.
In the early stages of the conflict, the group largely backed the military campaign, viewing U.S. strikes as necessary to deplete Iran’s long-range missile stockpile and cripple its nuclear capabilities.
Now, nearly four months later, with Iran appearing politically strengthened and much of its military capacity still in place, 14 of the 18 voters took issue with various elements of the memorandum of understanding announced on June 14. Most expressed doubt that Tehran would follow through on any agreement, and many were troubled by the idea of providing billions of dollars for Iran’s rebuilding efforts.
The $300 billion reconstruction fund is structured as a private investment vehicle rather than a government-funded program, though the full details have yet to be made public.
Juan Rivera, 26, said Trump “criticized his predecessors about negotiating with terrorists, and he’s basically done the same exact thing.”
Rivera said he still plans to vote for mostly Republican candidates in the midterms. But he noted that while volunteering to canvass Latino voters near his community in the San Diego area, he found many fellow Trump supporters so let down by the president’s handling of the war — among other grievances — that they had little motivation to turn out for his party in November.
“A lot of people say: ‘Why should I vote when the president’s not doing what he promised?’” Rivera recalled.
When asked to respond, a White House spokesperson told Reuters that Trump’s achievement “on the battlefield and at the negotiating table is nothing short of remarkable and will strengthen American security for many years.”
Steve Egan, 65, a promotional product distributor based in Tampa, had already turned against Trump in early 2025 after tariff-driven price increases hurt his business. He was skeptical of the war’s justification from the beginning and frustrated that it drove up the cost of gasoline and other goods.
“Right now it doesn’t seem like it’s been worth it to go through all that,” he said, pointing out that the stated objective of regime change “didn’t happen.” His view of the president has dropped so low that Egan said Trump’s endorsement would be “the kiss of death” for any candidate he’s considering in the midterms.
Brandon Neumeister, 37, a Pennsylvania state corrections worker and former National Guardsman, said the conflict appeared to have done little more than benefit oil companies. Even before the war broke out, he said, he was unlikely to vote in November due to his deep frustration with politics in general.
Robert Billups, 35, of Washington state, said he was cautiously hopeful the peace agreement would hold, but felt the war had generated more resentment toward the United States rather than making the country more secure. His confidence in Vice President JD Vance — who led U.S. negotiations with Iran — has declined, and Billups said he no longer feels a strong pull toward Republican candidates. In November, he said, “whoever has a better strategy this time, I’m gonna vote for them regardless of their party.”
Despite Trump’s stated commitment to ending the war, six of his more loyal supporters said they still hope he has secret plans to bring Iran under control.
Kate Mottl, 63, a secretary at a municipal office in the Chicago suburbs, said that “destroying” the regime in Tehran seemed like the only way to prevent future conflict. She said it would be “very disappointing” if Trump chose not to pursue further military action, adding that she believes “there’s a bigger plan here.”
Rich Somora, 62, an engineer in North Carolina, agreed that Trump likely has more aggressive moves in mind. “I can’t imagine that he would have gone through all this and not found out a way to get rid of those mullahs,” he said. Diplomats and analysts, however, say the war has actually tightened the grip of Iran’s clerical leadership. If they remain in power for another month, Somora said, he’ll start to grow concerned.
Joyce Kenney, a 74-year-old retiree in Prescott, Arizona, said she supports lifting the sanctions and believes restoring Iran’s access to international trade would give its leaders reason to honor the ceasefire. But she drew the line at the reconstruction fund: “That’s not our responsibility,” she said.
