Gallup polls Americans on military spending, NAFTA, and NATO
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U.S. soldiers secure the beach head after an amphibious landing vehicle assault during the U.S.-Thai join military exercise titled "Cobra Gold" on Hat Yao beach in Chonburi province, eastern Thailand, Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. Twenty-nine countries, including China, India and Malaysia, are participating in or observing the exercises which started earlier in the week. Some 3,600 American troops are attending this year, hundreds more than last year. (Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)
NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in U.S. opinion.
Americans perceive that the United States is number one militarily, but don’t think the country is number one economically.
Trump has vowed to spend more on the military, but Americans are split — 37 percent agree that we are spending too little; 31 percent say we are spending too much; and 32 percent say it’s about right. That’s despite the fact that Americans have more confidence in the military than any other institution Gallup tests each year.
What’s Trump going to do about NAFTA? It’s unclear at this point, but he’s certainly in the past been in favor of killing it or renegotiating it. Americans’ views of NAFTA are vastly different depending on their politics.
Vice President Mike Pence was in Brussels this week, “to express strong support of President Trump and the USA for NATO and our Transatlantic Alliance,” even though Trump had criticized NATO during his campaign.
Americans are in line with Pence. They tend to like NATO and feel it’s important.
New analysis of President Trump’s job approval rating shows a polarization of attitudes towards him with a not unusual 42 percent. About 90 percent of Democrats disapprove of the job he is doing.
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