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Trump’s Foreign Policy Gambit and Domestic Polling Collapse
Just 33% of Americans approve of the intervention in Venezuela—putting it in late Vietnam War territory.
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Donald Trump is lashing out abroad because he is weak at home. Hounded by a failing economy and unable to shake Epstein, Trump has reverted to a tried-and-tested playbook: a foreign war meant to rally patriotic support for a floundering presidency.
While it might seem too early to say how Americans view the intervention, it appears to have monumentally backfired. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 4–5 found that just 33% of Americans approve of the intervention. That figure is only slightly higher than approval of the Vietnam War in 1973, as U.S. troops were withdrawing from the country.
Public support for military conflicts almost always erodes over time, regardless of circumstances. Venezuela is unique only in how thinly justified the intervention was—perhaps more so than any military action in living memory. Americans will come to despise this war because U.S. involvement will inevitably drag on.
The same Reuters poll found that 72% of Americans worry the United States will become too involved in Venezuela. Their fears are entirely justified. The Maduro trial will be lengthy, and given its recent track record, the Justice Department is all but guaranteed to bungle it. God only knows what kind of chaos the abduction of a head of state has unleashed inside Venezuela itself. According to the president’s own words, the United States taxpayer now bears responsibility for that chaos.
A series of findings from The Economist/YouGov poll helps explain why Trump might see value (aside from his insatiable personal greed) in a foreign conflict. He wants to distract from his economic failure. Fifty-two percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse. Fifty-seven percent expect prices to rise further. Another 57% disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy.
And just as Americans sink deeper into debt and struggle under runaway prices, the spoils of war will be funneled into offshore accounts that Trump and his family are almost certain to loot when he leaves office.
The pathetic spasms of resistance from a handful of congressional Republicans are little more than desperate attempts to outrun their own sins. The combined weight of Trump’s corruption and senility will crush even the seemingly repentant “moderates.” That said, these instances of Republican rebellion tell us they know how bad the midterms appear even at this distance.
This war is not a show of strength but a confession of failure. It reflects a president cornered by scandal, and public discontent—grasping at empire because he has lost credibility at home.
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