Poll finds most Americans think Trump went too far with military abroad

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of U.S. adults believe President Donald 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, and found 56% of U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on military interventions abroad.

Democrats and independents were much more likely than Republicans to say Trump has gone too far. About 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents said he has “gone too far,” compared with about 2 in 10 Republicans.

Even among Republicans, there was little appetite for an expansion of what Trump is doing abroad. The vast majority of Republicans, 71%, said Trump’s actions have been “about right,” and only about 1 in 10 said they want him to go further.

The survey also found majorities disapproving of how Trump is handling foreign policy overall and the situation in Venezuela. About 6 in 10 Americans, 57%, disapprove of how Trump is handling Venezuela, while 61% disapprove of his approach to foreign policy more broadly.

The findings largely cut against Trump’s aggressive foreign policy stance described by the poll’s backdrop, including efforts to exert control over Venezuelan oil, calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland, and warnings the U.S. would provide aid to people protesting in Iran.

The poll did find some Americans seeing potential benefits from U.S. intervention in Venezuela. About half of Americans said the U.S. intervening there will be “mostly a good thing” for halting the flow of illegal drugs into the country, while close to 4 in 10, 44%, said U.S. actions would do more to benefit than harm the Venezuelan people.

But U.S. adults were divided on whether intervention would benefit U.S. interests in economic and national security terms. Republicans were more likely to see drug-trafficking benefits, with about 8 in 10 saying the intervention would be “mostly a good thing” for stopping illegal drugs, while fewer—about 6 in 10—said it would benefit the U.S. economy.

The poll also showed a broad preference for reducing U.S. involvement in global affairs. Nearly half of Americans want the U.S. to take a “less active” role, while about one-third say its current role is “about right.” Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults said they want the country to be more involved globally, including about 1 in 10 Republicans.

The AP-NORC survey included 1,203 adults 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 was plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.