WASHINGTON — Republican voters like the preliminary peace deal with Iran less the more they know about it, according to a new poll shared exclusively with The Post.
Initially, registered Republican voters backed the deal by a margin of more than three-to-one (62% to 20%), according to the survey by J.L. Partners.
But after hearing details of the memorandum of understanding signed by President Trump last week, just 32% deem it a “good deal” while 44% pan it as a “bad deal,” with another 15% saying it’s “neither.”
Respondents took particular issue with provisions of the MOU waiving sanctions to allow the sale of Iranian crude oil and an agreement by the US not to impose new penalties during a 60-day negotiating period.
More than half of GOP voters (57%) said they would be less inclined to support the deal after hearing it eases sanctions without requiring Tehran to stop funding terrorist proxies in the Middle East or dismantle its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
“If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some,” President Trump told reporters at the G7 last week in response to criticism of the agreement. “Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but [Iran] can’t have them? It doesn’t work that way.”
Nearly half of respondents (48%) said they would be less likely to support a peace deal that promised Iran $300 billion in reconstruction funds, which both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have claimed would be used in part to purchase American agricultural products.
A whopping 63% of Republican voters also don’t want any deal unless Iran surrenders its enriched uranium and dismantles its nuclear facilities.
Iran’s stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium is widely believed to be buried under rubble following US airstrikes on three nuclear sites in June 2025, and its fate is expected to be a sticking point in ongoing negotiations.
More than half (52%) also agreed that Israel should be allowed to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon even at the expense of a deal with Iran, while just 30% argued that reaching a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz should take priority.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Israel for its attacks in Lebanon, but recently put the onus back on Iran, warning he would hit Tehran “very hard” if it fails to rein in Hezbollah.
When asked who won the war, only 44% of GOP respondents felt that the US won, while 19% said Iran had gotten the better of the conflict and 31% concluded it was a tie or that neither country won, per the poll.
Republican voters were also split over which side had gotten the best of the deal, with 40% saying the US had “done better,” 36% saying Iran had won the peace and 24% saying they were unsure.
The J.L. Partners survey sampled 1,033 registered Republican voters June 19–21 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
