What Americans think about Trump’s military intervention abroad, according to new poll

WASHINGTON — More than half of U.S. adults believe President Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

The poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted Jan. 8-11, after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture. It found that 56% of U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on military interventions abroad, while majorities disapprove of how the Republican president is handling foreign policy in general and Venezuela in particular.

The findings largely cut against Trump’s aggressive foreign policy stance, which has recently included efforts to exert control over Venezuelan oil, calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland and warnings that the U.S. would provide aid to people protesting in Iran. Many did see the Trump administration’s recent intervention in Venezuela as a “good thing” for stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. and a benefit for the Venezuelan people, but fewer say it’s a positive for U.S. national security or the U.S. economy.

Republicans are mostly following Trump’s lead, despite the sharp contrast with the “America First” platform he ran on. But few Republicans want Trump to go further, underscoring the risks of a continued focus abroad.

Most Republicans say Trump’s actions have been ‘about right’

While the U.S. used its military power in Venezuela to capture Maduro, Trump has also made recent comments about seizing Greenland “the hard way” if Denmark’s leaders do not agree to a deal for the U.S. to take it over, and he has warned Iran that the U.S. will come to the “rescue” of peaceful protesters.

Democrats and independents are driving the belief that Trump has overstepped. About 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents say Trump has “gone too far” on military intervention, compared with about 2 in 10 Republicans.

The vast majority of Republicans, 71%, say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” and only about 1 in 10 want to see him go further.

About 6 in 10 Americans, 57%, disapprove of how Trump is handling the situation in Venezuela, which is slightly lower than the 61% who disapprove of his approach to foreign policy. Both measures are in line with his overall job approval, which has largely remained steady throughout his second term.

Many say the U.S. action in Venezuela will be good for halting drug trafficking

Many Americans see some benefits from U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

About half of Americans believe the U.S. intervening in Venezuela will be “mostly a good thing” for halting the flow of illegal drugs into the country. Close to 4 in 10, 44%, believe the U.S. actions will do more to benefit than harm the Venezuelan people, who lived under Maduro’s dictatorship for more than a decade. But U.S. adults are divided on whether intervention will be good or bad for U.S. economic and national security interests or if it simply won’t have an impact.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to see benefits to the U.S. action, particularly its effects on drug trafficking. About 8 in 10 Republicans say America’s intervention will be “mostly a good thing” for stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country, but fewer Republicans, about 6 in 10, believe it will benefit the U.S. economy.

Democrats and independents drive desire for U.S. to take a ‘less active’ role

Most Americans don’t want greater U.S. involvement in world affairs, the poll found. Nearly half of Americans want the U.S. to take a “less active” role, and about one-third say its current role is “about right.”

Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say they want the country to be more involved globally, including about 1 in 10 Republicans.

At least half of Democrats and independents now want the U.S. to do less, a sharp shift from a few months ago.

Republicans, meanwhile, have grown more likely to indicate that Trump’s level of involvement is right. About 6 in 10 Republicans, 64%, say the country’s current role in world affairs is “about right,” which is up from 55% in September. About one-quarter of Republicans say the U.S. needs to take a “less active role” in solving problems around the globe, down from 34% a few months ago.

Sanders writes for the Associated Press. The AP-NORC poll of 1,203 adults was conducted Jan. 8-11 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.