Americans skeptical about potential Iran war escalation

• And on Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) drew her own red line, writing in a post on X that after attending a briefing on Iran, she would not support boots on the ground as part of the operations.
• While Mace's declaration turned heads, other Republican lawmakers have expressed reservations over the possibility of ground combat operations — though Congress has thus far blocked efforts to constrain the president's ability to wage war in Iran.
• "I would hope that we wouldn't see ground troops in combat," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) told NOTUS Wednesday. "It's time to bring this to an end. I hope we wouldn't escalate it with ground troops."

By the numbers: A March 17–19 Reuters-Ipsos poll of U.S. adults found that a majority of respondents (65%) thought it was at least somewhat likely that the U.S. will deploy troops in Iran for a large-scale ground operation.

• Just 7% said they supported deploying a large number of troops on the ground. However, 34% said they supported deploying a small number of special forces for targeted operations.

Catch up quick: It comes as Army paratroopers are set to deploy to the Middle East.

• Putting boots on the ground would mark a sharp escalation in the conflict — but it's no secret the administration wants to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of oil, Axios' Bec Falconer writes.
• Trump's team has considered occupying or blockading Kharg Island, which processes the lion's share of Iran's crude oil exports, in order to pressure Tehran to reopen the vital trade artery, Axios previously reported.

What they're saying: "The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement provided to Axios. "As President Trump said, he has no plans to send ground troops to Iran at this time."

• But Trump told the New York Post he wouldn't rule it out if necessary.

Roughly 6 in 10 adults say the recent U.S. action against Iran has gone too far, according to AP-NORC polling out Wednesday. 26% said it has been about right, and 13% said it has not gone far enough.

• More than half of Republicans (52%) said the operation had been about right, while just over a quarter (26%) said it had gone too far.

Zoom out: Pew Research Center polling out on Wednesday found that six-in-ten at least somewhat disapprove of Trump's handling of the war with Iran.

• Unsurprisingly, there were sharp partisan differences. But Pew did highlight fractures among those who consider themselves Republicans.
• Smaller shares of younger Republicans (49% of those 18 to 29) supported how Trump was handling the conflict compared to older ones (84% of those 65 and older).

What we're watching: Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran remain "productive," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday after Iranian state media reported Tehran had rejected Trump's plan to end the war.

• But she also said that the president is ready to "unleash hell" if Iran does not accept defeat.

Go deeper: Trump tells Axios there's "practically nothing left" to target in Iran

Methodology: The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted March 17-19 of 1,545 general population adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults.

The Pew survey was conducted from March 16-March 22. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 3,524 respondents is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

The AP-NORC nationwide poll was conducted March 19-23. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,150 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.