Less than half of active military have favorable view of Trump

Half of the active members of the U.S. military hold an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Military Times. About 45% hold a “very unfavorable” view, with an additional 5% holding an “unfavorable” view.

The poll was released one day before the House of Representatives met to vote on two articles of impeachment against Trump.

The numbers are a big change since Trump came to power, when only 37% of troops viewed Trump unfavorably a few weeks after his election, the Military Times noted on Tuesday. The same report contained a chart compiling data from annual surveys of military members, conducted by the Military Times, showing a steady decline in Trump’s favorability and a corresponding uptick in his unfavorable numbers since he was elected.

Trump’s 42% favorable rating in Tuesday’s poll “sets his lowest mark in the survey since being elected president,” the Military Times wrote.

When asked about specific actions taken by the White House, military members were generally unhappy with some of the most high-profile decisions Trump made over the course of 2019.

Nearly 58% of troops disapproved of Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from northern Syria in early October.

Trump made the decision after he spoke with the leader of Turkey and gave that country a green light to start a military incursion into Syria to attack Kurds in the region. The Kurds had been American allies in the fight against ISIS terrorists. Trump’s decision empowered ISIS, according to outside experts.

Military members also frowned upon Trump’s decision to take funds allocated to military bases and use it to build a wall along the southern border, with 59% disapproving and only 34% approving, according to the new poll.

When he campaigned, Trump promised Mexico would pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Three years later, he took $3.6 billion Congress allocated to military bases to finance the wall, leaving military families without much-needed facility upgrades. Trump took half a billion dollars from schools on military bases, in addition to funding from safety upgrades at bases in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and other bases around the globe.

Like most Americans, military members are slightly more in favor of the impeachment of Trump than opposed to it. Roughly 47% support impeachment, while 46% oppose. A recent Fox News poll showed 50% of the general public support impeaching and removing Trump from office, with 46% opposed.

The poll did not ask about Trump’s decision to pardon war criminals, which was opposed by most of the top brass in the Pentagon, according to the Military Times.

In explaining the views of the military, retired Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan, who worked for both Trump and President Obama, told the Military Times that troops have “seen more indications that he hasn’t been a great commander in chief.”

As a result, troops are “moving closer to where the rest of the public is,” Lapan added.

In a recent CNN poll, Trump held just a 32% approval rating among women. In the Military Times poll, only 33% of women in the military held a favorable view of Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.