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Most Americans don't want troops deployed without an external threat, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Majority of Americans oppose Trump’s use of troops in cities, favor keeping military neutral in domestic politics
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Reuters - Wed, 08, Oct 2025
- 16:15 EDT
- 14
Members of the West Virginia National Guard patrol at the Lincoln Memorial, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement to assist in crime prevention, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 23, 2025. / REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
Some 58 percent of Americans—including seven in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans—think the president should send armed troops only to face external threats, a sign of unease as President Donald Trump increasingly deploys National Guard troops to police American cities, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The poll, which ran Oct. 3 through Oct. 7, also showed the Republican president's approval rating ticking down to 40 percent—1 percentage point lower than in a late September poll—with his rating slipping on his handling of crime and the cost of living for U.S. households.
The poll was conducted in the days after Trump told an unusual meeting of hundreds of generals and admirals summoned from around the world to Virginia that the U.S. faces an "enemy within" and as he deploys armed troops to patrol a growing number of Democratic-led cities, including Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
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Democratic leaders say the deployments are politically motivated and have challenged the troop movements in court. Trump on Oct. 6 threatened to invoke an 18th-century anti-insurrection law to sidestep any court rulings restricting his orders to send Guard troops into cities over the objections of local and state officials.
Some 37 percent of poll respondents said they agreed with a statement that presidents of either political party should have the power to deploy troops into states even when state governors object, compared to 48 percent who disagreed.
Trump has also deployed troops along the U.S. border, arguing the country is being invaded by criminal immigrants, and has ordered troops to kill suspected drug traffickers on boats off Venezuela without due process.
Before his address to top military leaders last week, Trump warned he would fire those he didn't like, comments Democrats criticized as an attempt to pressure the military into taking his side in political debates.
Americans prefer political neutrality for military
The U.S. military traditionally keeps itself far removed from political discussions, and the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Americans prefer that approach.
Some 83 percent of respondents said the military "should remain politically neutral and not take a side in domestic policy debates," while 10 percent said the armed forces should start taking sides and support the president's domestic policy agenda. About one in five Republicans said the military should take the president's side in political debates.
Trump's approval rating on crime fell in the latest poll to 41 percent from 43 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Sept. 5-9.
Trump's overall approval has fallen 7 percentage points since a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the hours following his Jan. 20 inauguration showed him with a 47 percent approval rating.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted online, surveyed 1,154 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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