How Americans are grading Trump on Venezuela and Greenland
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Americans are divided on the merits of President Trump's recent foreign incursions and threats and remain especially skeptical of acquiring Greenland, new polling has found.
The big picture: While the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has gained support in its aftermath, Trump's Greenland gambit remains deeply unpopular, underscoring the political riskiness of a key piece of his so-called "Donroe Doctrine."
By the numbers: A plurality of Americans say Trump's use of military force against Venezuela was not justified, but a growing share back it, including a majority of Republicans, per polling from The Economist and YouGov.
- Meanwhile, 17% of U.S. adults said they approve of the president's push to acquire Greenland, according to a Reuters-Ipsos survey conducted between Jan. 12-13. Two out of five Republicans say they support doing so.
- However, only 4% of those surveyed — and 8% of Republicans — said using military force to take Greenland is a good idea, per the Reuters-Ipsos poll.
A separate poll released by the Economist-YouGov found broad opposition to seizing ownership of Greenland, either by force or monetary incentives.
- Just 8% of U.S. adults — and 18% of Republicans — backed taking control of the self-governing territory of longtime U.S. ally Denmark by force.
Between the lines: There is a key difference in how U.S. adults are viewing the two situations.
- A slight majority (51%) said Venezuela was unfriendly or an enemy of the U.S., while 9% said the same of Greenland.
What he's saying: Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. "needs Greenland" for national security purposes, saying it is vital for his "Golden Dome" project and that "NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES."
State of play: Greenland is not for sale, and Trump's repeated overtures have roiled U.S. allies.
- Seizing it would trigger a historic crisis for NATO that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned would effectively spell the end of the alliance.
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly said the U.S. wants to buy Greenland rather than invade it. Still, that hasn't stopped Trump from discussing the prospects of military confrontation.
- Reuters reports that just 10% of U.S. adults agree that the U.S. should use military force to obtain new territory, like Greenland and the Panama Canal — a number that's largely unchanged from last January.
The bottom line: Trump has acted on deeply unpopular ideas before, only to see public opinion shift in his favor afterwards.
- Shortly before the U.S. operation targeting Maduro, an Economist-YouGov poll found that only 22% of U.S. adults supported using military force to overthrow him.
- In the pollster's recent survey, support for it has nearly doubled.
Go deeper: Trump's Greenland threats leave allies sweating: How we got here
Methodology: The Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,217 U.S. adults was conducted online between Jan. 12-13 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The YouGov-Economist poll of 1,602 U.S. citizen adults was conducted Jan. 9-12 with a margin of error of 3.3% percentage points.
