Americans split narrowly in favor of Trump’s decision to order the airstrike that killed Iranian military commander Soleimani, a new survey finds, but express qualms about the president’s decision-making process and the strike’s possible repercussions
Americans split narrowly in favor of President Donald Trump’s decision to order the airstrike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds, but express qualms about the president’s decision-making process and the strike’s possible repercussions. Overall views of the administration’s foreign policy remain underwater.
The poll’s results reflect concern over Trump’s decision-making ― an argument made by top Democrats, who were not consulted before the airstrike. Americans say, 43% to 35%, that Trump did not plan carefully enough before ordering the strike. They also say, 44% to 34%, that Trump should have gotten authorization from Congress before ordering the killing.
There’s reason to think people’s views on the issue remain subject to change. Past polling on the Iran deal proved widely variable and highly dependent on framing ― Americans, for instance, were more likely to back the nuclear agreement when they were reminded that its goal was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons than if they were given less context. Such variability is often a sign that public opinion on an issue remains malleable and subject to prompting by political leaders.
Iran has already come up in the Democratic primary: former Vice President Joe Biden has used the killing of Soleimani to highlight his foreign policy credentials, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has touted his antiwar record. Among the full electorate, 41% of registered voters say they don’t trust any of the Democratic candidates to handle Iran. About a third trust Biden, with about a quarter trusting Sanders and Warren, and fewer than 20% picking any of the other candidates.
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