U.S. military veterans have a distinctly more favorable view of President Trump’s record as commander in chief than the general public, a new Pew Research Center report found, despite some doubts about Mr. Trump’s leadership style.
Nearly six in 10 military veterans (57%) say they approve of Mr. Trump’s handling of his duties as commander in chief, while just under half (48%) said his policies have left the military in a stronger position. By contrast, just 41 percent of the U.S. population as a whole approves or “approves strongly” of Mr. Trump’s record as commander in chief.
Veterans also took a more favorable view of Mr. Trump on a number of national security issues, according to the Pew survey.
A large majority of veterans (58%) support the administration’s policy of sending more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to handle the immigration crisis, compared to just 47% of the general public approving this initiative.
A slight majority, 53%, back Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran — 13 percentage points higher than the general public.
Veterans were evenly split on the matter of transgender people serving in the military, but a clear majority of the non-veteran Americans (64%) polled did not support Mr. Trump’s ban of transgender military service.
The gap in veterans’ and the public’s views mirrors the political leanings of the two groups as well. Six in every 10 military members identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, and the public is more evenly split at 44% Republican and 51% Democrat.
These findings come from a spring 2019 Pew Research report that distributed parallel surveys to 1,284 military veterans and 1,087 non-veteran Americans.
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