Buy it, Don: Americans oppose Trump's foreign policy projects
A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that seven out of 10 American citizens have a negative attitude towards US interference in Iran's internal affairs due to the tense situation in the Islamic republic. Another study conducted by Reuters in collaboration with Ipsos provided data that about 17% of American adults surveyed now support the annexation of Greenland. A similar situation is developing in the Latin American direction. Right now, US citizens definitely do not support any of Trump's military adventures. Izvestia has studied why, in this case, the head of the White House continues to disperse foreign policy efforts in different directions and for what purpose he keeps his attention on the Middle East.
Americans' attitude to Trump's military ambitions: polls and opinions
Recently, not a single foreign policy initiative of Donald Trump has been warmly welcomed by Americans. For example, most citizens do not want US interference in Iran's internal affairs. Quinnipiac University survey data showed: 70% of respondents believe that Washington should not launch military operations due to large-scale protests in the republic, while 18% advocate the implementation of this scenario.
The responses of independent voters and Democrats who participated in the study yielded the following results: 80% and 79% categorically do not support the intervention of the United States. Among Republicans, 53% say they do not want to see the United States in the conflict, while 35% say that Washington, on the contrary, should be more actively involved in Tehran's affairs.
Disagreements over the Iranian position in the United States have caused another split in the Republican administration. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the vice President of the United States and isolationist J. D. Vance called on Trump to try to resolve the conflict in the Middle East through diplomacy and only in case of failure to use force.
The views of the 47th president of the United States are supported by another politician, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Back in April 2025, he spoke in favor of military action to destroy Iran's "nuclear weapons production potential." However, now he is working more in the Latin American direction: he is negotiating with the new government in Venezuela, and is also sending a "humanitarian mission" to Cuba, which, as stated, should help the citizens of the state recover from the effects of Hurricane Melissa.
In the "northern direction", everything also looks sad enough, because less than 20% of the US population supports Trump's desire to buy Greenland, and only 4% of Americans like the option of seizing the island by force. A similar situation is developing after the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Two thirds of US residents oppose the continuation of any militaristic activities in Latin America.
Donald Trump is developing several foreign policy directions at once. American political scientist Malek Dudakov explains this by saying that the American leader, in fact, implements a typical business strategy when there are many "startups", but 80% of them "disappear", and in the end the most successful remain.
— This is not a classic strategy that is used in public administration: one goal, one success. Trump takes a business model as a basis, develops several areas at once and monitors the development of events: Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, Iran, Ukraine, Taiwan, and so on," the expert said.
Donald Trump, John Ratcliffe and Pete Hegseth watch the US military operation in Venezuela, January 3, 2026
For example, when the negotiations on Ukraine "got bogged down in a diplomatic quagmire," the Trump team began to pay less attention to them than to Venezuela and the whole of Latin America, which are at the peak of their political popularity. The same thing is happening with Iran: the protests that began there interested the American leader.
Hot January
The United States is deploying military forces to the Middle East amid consideration by the American president of the possibility of a strike on Iran. This was reported by the Fox News channel, citing sources.
"American military forces and assets are being deployed to the Middle East," follows a message on the social network X. Later, it was reported that an aircraft carrier group was heading to the Middle East. "It is expected that US military forces and assets from the air, land and sea will arrive in the region in the coming days and weeks," the publication says.
More recently, Trump appealed to the citizens of Iran to continue their protests and "seize institutions." "To all Iranian patriots: keep protesting. Capture your institutions if possible. And remember the names of the murderers and tyrants who mock you," said the 47th President of the United States. The American leader also "encouraged" the Iranians, saying that "help is on the way."
Whatever the results of opinion polls of US citizens regarding interference in Iran's domestic politics, they will not become stop factors for the Middle East policy of the 47th American president. Initially, Donald Trump has personal economic interests in the region. The Trump Organization is currently implementing a number of projects for the construction of luxury hotels, residential complexes and golf courses in the Persian Gulf and parts of Asia, as well as concluding cryptocurrency transactions. Trump's other interests in the Middle East include Israel's security, controlling shipping risks, complying with the terms of deals with the Persian Gulf monarchies, and so on.
Dmitry Brije, a Middle East specialist, shared with Izvestia the opinion that at the moment the main risk around the situation in Iran is not Washington's desire to start a full-scale war, but rather that the escalation of the conflict may become a "by-product of the era of events." Despite the fact that most of Trump's party opposes strikes, the combination of a propensity for forceful pressure in negotiations, the influence of the Israeli lobby, economic interests in the Middle East and possible provocations by Tehran can lead to a real threat.
— If we talk about the formats of actions, then, most likely, it will be some kind of limited, targeted strikes, cyber operations, expansion of sanctions, and so on. The most dangerous scenario is the United States being drawn into the conflict through retaliatory actions against American military installations and citizens of the United States. Polls that show a high level of rejection of intervention reduce the space for a major war, but do not block restrained military steps if they are framed as self—defense and a short operation," the expert explained.
A war without a machine gun
The US military resources are being dispersed all over the world. Here is Trump's desire to get Greenland, to which NATO has already managed to transfer the first military due to the threat to the territorial integrity of Denmark, and Latin America, and the Middle East. At the same time, it is very significant that the Pentagon has so far failed to replenish the stocks of air defense missiles spent during the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict.
During the summer campaign, several Patriot-type air defense systems were deployed to the Middle East, protecting American bases. Later, they were returned to other destinations. Also, in June 2025, 150 missiles for THAAD air defense systems were spent: 650 were produced in just 15 years. These rockets are assembled manually — only 30 of them are produced per year, and the cost of each of them is $ 13 million.
Malek Dudakov told Izvestia that Donald Trump's faith in the US military power remains, among other things, because by the 2026 congressional elections it is necessary to provide results that will force voters to vote for Republicans.
— He needs to show successes and "sell" them to his electorate as proof that America is returning to its "Golden Age", that is, it received what was promised by Trump during the inauguration. Moreover, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the unification and independence of the United States - a big round anniversary," the expert concluded.
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