Poll: 43 percent approve of Trump strike on Soleimani

About 4 in 10 Americans approve of President Trump’s decision to order the airstrike that killed a top Iranian military commander, according to a new HuffPost-YouGov survey. 

The poll, which was released on Monday, found that 43 percent of registered voters surveyed said they supported Trump’s order to kill Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, one of the most powerful officials in Iran and the leader of its elite Quds Force. Among that pool, 30 percent said they strongly approved of the decision.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they disapproved of the military action, showing that Americans are almost equally divided over the move. Nineteen percent said they were not sure whether they approved or disapproved of Trump’s decision. 

The attack on Soleimani could have far-reaching consequences in the Middle East and has been met with a vow of retaliation from Iranian officials. Trump has responded by threatening to target Iranian sites, including those of cultural significance, if the country attacks Americans or U.S. assets.

The Huff Post-YouGov survey shows that opinions about Trump’s airstrike order divide along partisan lines. Eighty-four percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents polled said they approved of the airstrike, while 71 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they disapprove of it. 

The survey also found that 43 percent of respondents think Trump did not plan carefully enough before ordering the airstrike, while 35 percent said he did plan carefully enough. A majority, 57 percent, also said that they think the strike makes further military conflict between the U.S. and Iran more likely than before. Just 8 percent said that the strike would make it less likely, while 20 percent said that it would make it neither more or less likely. 

Trump argued last week that he authorized the strike “to stop a war.”

In addition, 44 percent of Americans polled said Trump should have received congressional authorization before ordering the strike on Soleimani. Thirty-four percent said he should not have gotten authorization from Congress. Top members of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have said they were not briefed on Trump’s decision until after the fact . 

The HuffPost-YouGov poll was conducted between Jan. 3 and Jan. 5 among a population of 1,000 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.