So much for Trump’s dog-wagging.
Looks like Americans have grown sick of tired of serial liars like Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. Nor do they seem to be willing to jump up and frantically wave the flag, which was the result both of those two fools were doubtlessly hoping for.
Americans by more than 2-1 said the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani has made the United States less safe, a nationwide USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds, amid broad concerns about the potential consequences ahead.
A majority of those surveyed, by 52%-34%, called President Donald Trump's behavior with Iran "reckless."
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That said, Americans by 55%-24% said they believe the attack that took his life has made the United States less safe, rejecting a fundamental argument the Trump administration has made. Just 1 in 10 said it had made the U.S. "much more safe;" three times as many said it had made the nation "much less safe."
Interestingly, over 1/3 of those who said the attacks made us less safe were Republicans.
While too many still seem to be reflexively willing to cheer whenever our military bombs someone, for whatever reason, it’s still interesting that this particular demonstration of our military muscle couldn’t muster more than a plurality of approval, with 42% supporting, 33% opposing and the other 25% too stunned to have an opinion.
52% — 8% (no, that’s not a typo) also said that the assassination of Soleimani made it more likely that Iran would now proceed to develop nuclear weapons.
Notably this was days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Americans that Soleimani was the 2020 equivalent of Osama Bin Laden, just more scary and fearsome, despite the fact that 99% of Americans had never heard of him until last week. Oh, and that his killing pre-empted a really super-scary “imminent threat” that for some reason was never spelled out.
And, yes, a majority of Americans do believe Trump was “wagging the dog” to distract from his impeachment for high crimes.
Some saw a domestic political motive behind the attack. By 47%-39%, those surveyed said Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani in an attempt to divert the focus from his impeachment. There was little support for the idea of delaying the Senate impeachment trial until the crisis with Iran was resolved; that was opposed by 55%-26%.
Those poll numbers will bounce around a little bit, as the polling ended just after Iran launched its strike against U.S. military bases in Iraq (after first informing the Iraqis, whom they obviously expected would inform the Americans, that the strikes would be coming). So some of the sinking feeling of sheer horror that most Americans experienced this week before witnessing the rather modest outcome of those attacks will have worn off. But it says a lot about how American attitudes towards this president’s recklessness have soured even their response to a U.S. military action under his direction.
Trump will pretend to ignore this poll, or if he does note it, he’ll say it’s “fake news.” But it ought to tell him something.
Americans don’t like Iran, and they don’t trust Iran.
But they seem to trust Donald Trump even less.