Americans expect gasoline prices to keep rising after Iran strikes, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) – Most Americans think gasoline prices are going to rise in coming months following President Donald Trump’s decision to launch military strikes on Iran, and many expect a protracted conflict, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday.

Some 67% of respondents in the four-day poll – including 44% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats – said they expect gas prices in the U.S. to get worse over the next year. Sixty percent of Americans expect U.S. military involvement in Iran will “go on for an extended period of time,” according to the poll.

U.S. and Israeli forces launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, killing the nation’s leader in an initial surprise attack.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 29% of Americans approve of the strikes, little changed from a 27% approval rate in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the hours immediately following the start of the military campaign. Both polls had margins of error of about 3 percentage points.

The latest poll underscores the political risks Trump brings to his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections when Democrats hope to seize control from Trump’s party of at least one chamber of Congress.

Some 64% of poll respondents – including one in four Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats – said Trump has not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement.

GAS PRICES SURGE

Trump returned to the White House last year after promising to tame inflation and prevent the military from getting stuck in a foreign conflict. Since he launched strikes on Iran, U.S. gasoline prices have surged by roughly 50 cents a gallon and at least seven U.S. soldiers have been killed.

Gasoline prices are highly sensitive in the U.S., as one of the most immediate and visceral indications Americans have of increases and decreases in their cost of living. 

Energy prices were rising daily last week across the country and internationally, including during the weekend as the Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted. Analysts expect weeks or months of higher fuel prices worldwide even if the week-old conflict ends quickly.

Trump is considering ways to combat surging prices, but U.S. policy options could have limited sway over global oil markets.  On Monday, he told reporters the military operation in Iran is “ahead of our initial timeline by a lot.”

Forty-nine percent of Americans – including a third of Republicans and two-thirds of Democrats – think the war in Iran will have a mostly negative impact on their personal finances. About one in three Republicans said they were not sure how the war would affect their finances.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,021 U.S. adults nationwide.

(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Jamie Freed)