Let's talk about lost faith in Trump's foreign policy skills in the US.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about lost faith in Trump's foreign policy skills in the US.

Some recent polling definitely explains a Trump administration's sudden interest in the optics of its foreign policy moves. The short answer is that Americans don't trust Trump on foreign policy even on questions about the president's most basic duties on the international scene. The results are pretty much the same when you're talking about some of the most important decisions any person can make.

A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs research poll asked a pretty simple question. "In general, how much do you trust Donald Trump to make the right decisions about each of the following?” When it comes to relationships with US allies, which are the easiest tasks in the foreign policy world, only 26% of people said they trusted Trump a great deal or quite a bit to make the right decisions. 56% said only a little or not at all. That's a ratio of 2:1. 43% of those surveyed said not at all.

Maybe picking fights with our closest allies wasn't a great idea. If I had to guess, that was where the confidence in Trump started to crack. But the lack of faith in Trump's decision-making on the international scene is now the majority opinion across the topics. The most telling is the use of nuclear weapons. I can't think of a single decision that carries more weight for a human being. 47% said not at all. Call me crazy, but everybody should be a single issue voter on this one.

If you can't trust someone to make the right decision with something that could potentially cause the loss of millions of lives, you shouldn't vote to put them into an office with that responsibility. When you add the people who said they trust Trump only a little to decide about nukes, the number goes to 59%. Which again is a 2:1 ratio over those who said they trust him a great deal or quite a bit.

But what might hit the Trump administration even harder is that Americans aren't particularly concerned with Iran's nuclear program. The polling was conducted from the 19th to the 23rd so after Trump had been really banging the war drums and doing his best fear-mongering. Those who are extremely or very concerned about Iran are only at about 48%. It doesn't even break a majority. That should make it harder for him to sell his war.

There's one other thing I found interesting in the polling that gave Trump such low marks. 48% of respondents identified as moderates. Thirty said they were conservatives and twenty said they were liberals. This doesn't bode well for Trump getting support for the elective war with Iran.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.

[generalbetrayus]

1. Lost? I never had it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. MaddowBlog-Why public skepticism of the offensive in Iran was inevitable -- and entirely Trump's fault

The president didn’t make the case for war. The resulting polling data was inevitable.

*Of course* the initial round of polling shows weak public support for the offensive in Iran:

The public didn’t want another war, and Trump never even tried to make the case. The results were inevitable. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-03-02T13:04:01.354Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-public-skepticism-of-the-offensive-in-iran-was-inevitable-and-entirely-trumps-fault

As Donald Trump moved the nation closer to a military conflict with Iran, there was some quantifiable evidence that suggested the American mainstream was not prepared for war. A University of Maryland poll released two weeks ago, for example, found that only about 1 in 5 Americans (21%) expressed support for the United States initiating an attack on Iran.....

Those national surveys, however, were conducted before the U.S. military offensive began. Would public attitudes change after the bombs started falling? Evidently not. Reuters reported on its first poll, conducted with Ipsos, on the crisis.

Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday.

Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure.

The same data found that a 56% majority of Americans think Trump is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests, which seems reasonable given the number of countries he’s attacked over the last year.....

For the White House, the survey data has to be discouraging, but if the president wants to know why exactly the American mainstream is not on board with the operation, he has no one to blame but himself.

Ahead of the U.S. offensive in Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush at least made the effort to prepare the nation for war. The president’s policy proved disastrous, but before launching the offensive he told the public what he was doing, why he was doing it, why he saw the mission as necessary and what he hoped to accomplish. While the failed policy ultimately proved wildly unpopular, when “shock and awe” got underway in Baghdad, polls showed strong public support.

Trump didn’t bother with any comparable efforts. Indeed, the Republican incumbent apparently didn’t see the point in informing the public about, or even trying to convince it of, the merits of his policy — to the extent that he has a policy beyond “drop bombs and hope it all works out.”

The president, in other words, didn’t make the case for war. The resulting polling data was inevitable.