Younger Americans are generally more critical of the Trump administration’s handling of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza than older Americans, but are also far more likely to not have an opinion on the conflict, according to a new poll by Pew Research.
While adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are more than twice as likely to disapprove of President Donald Trump’s response to the conflict than approve — with 16 percent responding favorably and 44 percent disapproving — 37 percent of the same group reported they were unsure of their opinion.
This comes as young Americans across the aisle are growing more skeptical of the U.S.’s support to Israel, and as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise.
Comparatively, the new poll finds Americans aged 50 and older are evenly split on their opinion of Trump’s handling of the conflict, with 39 percent approving of Trump’s response, 39 percent disapproving and just 21 percent being unsure.
The survey was conducted from Sept. 22-28 — days before Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced they’d reached an agreement on a U.S.-led peace plan, which Hamas is currently considering.
Trump on Friday gave Hamas a deadline of Sunday to respond to the ceasefire plan.
On average, a plurality of Americans is slowly growing more critical of Trump’s response to the conflict, with 42 percent disapproving of the administration’s handling of the war and 30 percent approving. That marks a gradual, slight decrease in approval in the U.S.’s hand in the conflict since November 2023 — when 35 percent of Americans approved of former President Joe Biden’s administration’s response to the war and 41 percent disapproved.
Republicans are also far more likely than Democrats to approve of Trump’s handling of the conflict, as well as in saying he’s striking the right balance between giving military assistance to Israel and providing humanitarian aid to Gazans. But across both parties, the share of Americans who say Trump is favoring the Israelis is on the rise.
About 57 percent of Democrats said Trump is favoring Israelis too much, a 7 point increase from the 50 percent of Democrats who said the same in March. And among Republicans, 18 percent said Trump is favoring the Israelis, a 5-point jump from 13 percent from six months ago. Most Republicans — 51 percent — said they think Trump is striking the right balance in the war.
This comes as more Republican lawmakers are gradually walking back their support for Israel, and as many in the MAGA base have voiced disdain over Israel’s decision to strike senior members of Hamas leadership in Qatar — which killed a Qatari security official.
The average share of Americans who say Trump is favoring Israelis too much is also rising, increasing by 5 points since March — from 31 percent to 36 percent. The share of Americans who think Trump has struck the right balance has declined from 29 percent to 23 percent — a 6-point drop in the last six months.
The survey was conducted from Sept. 22-28, and interviewed 3,445 American adults. The full sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, and smaller groups of respondents will have a larger margin of error.
