Two days after Donald Trump ordered a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear targets, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton arrived on Capitol Hill with some data in hand. As Politico reported, the Arkansan “shared with GOP colleagues results from a new poll that showed overwhelming support among Republicans” for the president’s military offensive.
And while it’s easy to believe that the survey the senator touted was accurate, it’s also worth emphasizing an inconvenient detail: There are other people in the United States who aren’t Republicans, and as The New Republic’s Greg Sargent noted, many of them were far less impressed.
A surprising new CNN poll [found] that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s bombing of Iran, while only 44 percent approve. Strikingly, 60 percent of independents disapprove, suggesting the middle of the country is not with Trump on any of this. … Note the CNN poll’s remarkable finding that 55 percent of Americans don’t trust Trump to make the right decisions on the use of force in Iran. This includes 62 percent of independents.
The same national CNN poll found that a 58% majority believe that the administration’s military strikes will make Iran more dangerous, not less, going forward. CNN’s poll coincides with a Reuters/Ipsos poll that was even worse for the White House: It found only 36% said they supported the strikes.
But wait, some Republicans might say, the public might not be overly impressed with Trump’s risky approach to national security and international affairs, but the president has a domestic policy agenda, too. Although that’s true, as NBC News reported, Trump’s domestic priorities aren’t winning any popularity contests, either.
President Donald Trump is facing political headwinds for his ‘big, beautiful bill’ as Republican leaders hope to begin votes on it in the Senate this week. Specifically, a raft of new surveys indicate that the GOP is losing the battle of public opinion on a major piece of legislation they’re aiming to pass by July 4. Nonpartisan polls released this month show that voters have a negative perception of the bill.
The five polls highlighted in the NBC News report varied a bit (which is to be expected), but support for the GOP’s far-right reconciliation package ranged between 23% and 38%.
As the party scrambles to get the legislation done ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline, the Republicans’ megabill is among the most unpopular major pieces of legislation in recent history. Or put another way, the only thing more unpopular than Trump’s foreign policy is his domestic policy. It is any wonder the president keeps making up an approval rating for himself?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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