A narrow majority of American adults support the Trump administration’s decision last week to launch a missile strike on a Syrian air base, according to a new poll.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday finds 51 percent of Americans support the airstrikes last week, which the president ordered in retaliation for a chemical attack that killed civilians in northern Syria. U.S. and Western officials have blamed the attacks on Syria’s military under President Bashar Assad, who is attempting to hold on to power during a yearslong civil war in the country.
According to the poll, 40 percent oppose the strikes.
Eighty-six percent of Republicans say they support the U.S. strike. But just 46 percent of independents and 37 percent of Democrats agree.
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Slightly more than half of Americans are also in support of a U.S. policy to remove Assad from power.
Only one-quarter of respondents think the U.S. strike will stop Syria from using chemical weapons in the future. And just about one-third of Americans think the U.S. should conduct additional strikes on Syria.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans think the strike in Syria could worsen U.S. relations with Russia.
The poll was conducted from April 7 to 9 among 900 adults. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
A HuffPost/YouGov poll released Sunday also found 51 percent of Americans were in support of the strikes. That survey found 32 percent of Americans opposed the president’s decision to launch the strikes and 17 percent were uncertain. Among people who voted for President Trump, 83 percent supported the president’s decision, while just 11 percent opposed it.
