While Trump campaigned against “endless wars” and pledged to focus on the homeland, his shift toward interventionism hasn’t rankled his supporters — in fact, he’s drawing solid support from the MAGA base.
“If you believe the Trump theory that our goal is to do everything we can to protect Americans, and that includes taking out bad people in certain places, then that’s America first,” said Amy Walter, editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
But she noted Trump loyalists appear to be making a distinction between military action against other countries and long-term nation building efforts similar to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If he said tomorrow that we’re going to send troops into the Middle East or we’re going to put boots on the ground in Venezuela, that is one thing that would break the coalition apart.”
Democrats are more pessimistic about the overseas plans. Only 18 percent of voters who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election supported U.S. military action against Iran, according to the poll, which was conducted by Public First.
But not all of Trump’s potential targets are appealing for Republican voters.
Support for using force against Greenland — a target that Trump has at times suggested could be acquired by the United States using military might — is much lower. Only 21 percent of Trump 2024 voters and 26 percent of self-identified “MAGA Republican” Trump voters backed the idea. (The poll was conducted Jan. 16 to 19, after Trump had significantly ratcheted up his rhetoric around Greenland but before he said he would take military action off the table during a Jan. 21 speech in Davos, Switzerland.)
Still, that means that more than one in four of Trump’s most ardent supporters would encourage him to potentially attack a NATO ally to achieve what he views as America’s strategic needs. After publicly toying with the idea of invading the Arctic island, Trump backed down from those threats last week.
Nearly a third of Republicans support military action even closer to home, as Trump has sought to project dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Thirty-two percent of Trump voters supported military intervention in Mexico, with 30 percent supporting military action in Colombia, while 28 percent said the U.S. should intervene militarily in Cuba.
Among self-described “MAGA Republican” Trump voters, those shares are again even higher.