WASHINGTON — A brand new poll on national security issues finds three-quarters of respondents consider it’s important for Ukraine to win its war against Russia’s invasion, but not all of them support providing Ukraine military aid.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s first summer poll, released to the general public on Sunday, also found continuing support for the US taking a leadership role on the earth, opposition to cutting defense spending — and a pronounced generational divide over whether to ban the social media app TikTok.
The Reagan Institute Summer Survey, which polled 1,254 people online and over the phone in late May and early June, found that 76% of respondents felt a Ukrainian victory was essential to the US.
That belief was held most strongly by Democratic respondents, 86% of whom agreed that a Ukrainian victory was essential, and least strongly by Independents, 58% of whom agreed. Amongst Republicans, 71% of all respondents agreed with that statement, but support was barely softer amongst respondents who said they might vote for former President Trump within the primaries.
A majority of poll respondents — about 59% of them — support the US sending Ukraine military aid, with about 30% opposing military aid.
Rachel Hoff, the Reagan Institute’s policy director, said in a June 23 call with reporters that represents a slight increase in support from the institute’s last poll, conducted in November 2022. That survey found that 57% of respondents supported providing Ukraine with military equipment and financial assistance, with 33% saying the U.S. should as a substitute concentrate on its problems at home.
“The polling doesn’t indicate that there’s a sort of Ukraine fatigue,” Hoff said. “There’s not decreasing levels of support for sending military aid to Ukraine. That’s remained consistent.”
Of aid supporters on this summer’s poll, 37% said it was most vital to rise up to Russian aggression in Ukraine to discourage Moscow from invading other neighboring countries. One other 30% of military aid supporters said it’s important to assist protect other nations’ sovereignty and the liberty of their peoples at any time when possible.
Aid opponents — 57% of them — overwhelmingly said the US has too lots of its own needs that usually are not being addressed to send billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. Concerns about further scary Russia motivated one other 15% of aid opponents, and 11% expressed concerns in regards to the depletion of the U.S.’s own weapons stockpile.
One other 11% said essentially the most compelling reason for opposing aid to Ukraine was because corruption and embezzlement there could mean some aid would never make it to the battlefield.
When asked whether more reliable accounting measures geared toward protecting against embezzlement or corruption would make them more prone to support aid to Ukraine, greater than half of respondents said it might not sway their opinion.
The poll also found people became more prone to support aid to Ukraine once they learned more in regards to the actual costs and outcomes of the help. When first asked a general query in regards to the United States’ aid to Ukraine, half of respondents said it has been value the associated fee. When pollsters followed up by saying the help has amounted to about $24 billion — or 3% of the U.S. military’s budget — while helping Ukraine hold onto about 83% of its own territory while severely degrading Russia’s military and talent to threaten NATO allies, that support rose to just about two-thirds.
Republicans’ opinions on the cost-effectiveness of Ukraine aid grew essentially the most after being more deeply informed in regards to the potential advantages of that aid, from 41% to 59%. Democrats were again most supportive, and Independents the least, at 46%.
Greater than half of all respondents, or 56%, said European allies usually are not doing their fair proportion to help Ukraine.
The poll didn’t query respondents on specific types of aid to Ukraine, comparable to long-range missiles or fighter jets.
The Reagan Institute typically polls the general public each November, but this yr decided to carry a second poll as summer began. This survey took a much greater dive into Ukraine-related questions than previous polls.
The survey showed mixed opinions on what role the US should play on the earth — but support grew when respondents were asked about specific foreign policy principles America could foster.
Hoff said that the institute was surprised to see two-thirds of overall respondents felt the U.S. can be higher served by withdrawing from international affairs and focusing more by itself problems. That included 75% of Republican respondents.
“That struck us as quite high, especially once we take into consideration President Reagan’s legacy around global engagement and American leadership,” Hoff said. “We were encouraged to see that as we asked in regards to the particulars of what American global engagement might appear to be, the answers were quite higher.”
When asked in regards to the importance of standing up for human rights and democracy, and promoting trade and boosting the economy, about three-quarters of overall respondents expressed their support. One other 85% — including 92% of Republican respondents — said it was essential to take care of a robust military. Hoff said all questions were asked at the identical time.
Hoff said these results — while appearing somewhat contradictory — show that Americans still remain supportive of the country playing a number one role on the earth and fascinating with other nations, despite domestic challenges.
“Americans … need to do each,” Hoff said. “They appear to reject the premise of that false dichotomy that we’d like to withdraw and concentrate on problems here at home.”
The poll also found strong opposition to cutting military spending to scale back the budget deficit, with 58% of respondents opposing such cuts. Democrats were most open to defense cuts, with fewer than half expressing opposition, and 70% of Republicans were against defense cuts.
The Reagan Institute’s poll found greater than half of respondents continued to favor supporting Taiwan to discourage China from invading — but again, there have been signs of softening support.
Last November, 61% of poll respondents supported increasing a U.S. military presence near Taiwan, and 58% supported selling Taiwan more arms. But in the newest poll, each responses slid to 56% and 52%, respectively.
Hoff attributed those declines to decreasing support for deterrence amongst Democrats, and said Republicans had grown more prone to support aid and a U.S. military presence near Taiwan.
Respondents were largely divided over the controversial social media app TikTok, with 40% saying it ought to be banned within the U.S. and 44% opposing such a ban.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that’s now headquartered in Singapore. It’s wildly popular with teens and young adults, who use it to create and share short, often humorous videos.
A pronounced split over TikTok emerged amongst respondents of various ages. Respondents who were between the ages of 18 and 29 were vehemently against a ban, with only 19% in favor and 73% opposed, and eight% expressing neither opinion.
Support for a ban steadily grew with respondents’ age, with 54% of respondents over 65 saying the app ought to be banned, and 24% opposed. And the share of respondents expressing neither opinion also increased with age, reaching 22% amongst those 65 and older.
Congress, the U.S. military and federal agencies have already banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices amid concerns that China could use the app to acquire private user data or attempt to push favorable misinformation.
ByteDance has rejected accusations that TikTok is a security threat and says it doesn’t share data with the Chinese government, nor hold data in China. ByteDance also says it’s independently run, and doesn’t collect more user data than other social media platforms.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.