Majority says Trump is too soft on Saudi Arabia: poll

A majority of Americans in a new poll said President Trump hasn’t been tough enough to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Axios poll released early Wednesday found that 56 percent of respondents said Trump’s response to Saudi Arabia has been “not tough enough,” while 32 percent said his response has been “about right.” Just 5 percent said he has been too tough.

{mosads}The poll also found a partisan divide, with more than half of Republicans saying his response has been about right, while 78 percent of Democrats said they think he hasn’t been tough enough.

Khashoggi, who was a columnist for The Washington Post, died inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. The Saudi government has claimed he died during a brawl in the consulate, but that explanation has drawn widespread skepticism and it is suspected that Khashoggi was murdered.

Trump on Tuesday called the Saudi explanation the “worst cover-up ever” and his administration moved to punish the kingdom over the killing.

But Trump had been slow to blame the Saudis, originally saying that he found its officials’ explanation to be a “good first step.” He also has said the U.S. shouldn’t cancel weapon sales to the kingdom in response to the killing of Khashoggi. 

The new Axios poll’s results are based on online surveys of 3,919 adults from Oct. 17 to Oct. 23. The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.