As President Donald Trump prepares to leave for a high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, American-Iranian talks over Iran’s nuclear program enter a critical phase. I would like to share with you two related items.

The first is my analysis of President Trump’s trip in a conversation with Steve Clemons on his show, The Bottom Line. We discuss the issues that are likely to come up, where Arabs stand on Iran and how they would feel about a possible new agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program, Trump’s Gaza stance, and possible Saudi normalization of relations with Israel. I also discuss our recent poll findings on Trump’s actions toward universities. You can find the link to the conversation here.

The second item is a fresh Critical Issues Poll of American public attitudes toward Iran’s nuclear program, conducted May 2-5, 2025. The poll probed public preference for a negotiated agreement that would limit Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful ends, with stringent monitoring, compared to undertaking military action in an attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

We found that only 14% of Americans preferred military action attempting to destroy Iran’s program, compared to 69% who preferred a negotiated agreement limiting Iran’s program. Notably, large majorities of both Republicans, 64%, and Democrats, 78%, preferred a negotiated agreement.

We also probed a question related to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, specific to Iran and Israel. Without providing any information on which state may or may not already possess nuclear weapons, we sought to find out public attitudes on which of four possible nuclear outcomes would be least dangerous for stability in the Middle East: Both Iran and Israel possessing nuclear weapons; neither possessing such weapons; only Israel possessing nuclear weapons; only Iran possessing such weapons.

The American public’s preference was clear: 69% preferred that neither Israel nor Iran possess nuclear weapons, including 63% of Republicans and 75% of Democrats, followed by 10% who preferred that Israel alone possess such weapons, including 21% of Republicans and 5% of Democrats.

In the coming days, we will be releasing more analysis of the data as well as additional opinion data related to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.