Majority of Americans feel less safe under Trump after Iran, poll finds

Most Americans say they are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about another full-scale war in Middle East

A majority of Americans said they think Donald Trump’s airstrike in Iraq responsible for killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has made the United States less safe, according to a new poll.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll published on Sunday also showed a majority of Americans disapproved of the president’s handling of the current situation with Iran, with 56 per cent of those surveyed saying they disapproved of Mr Trump’s actions, compared to 43 per cent who said they approved.

Attitudes sharply differed along party lines in the poll conducted over the weekend. While 52 per cent of respondents said the airstrike has made the US less safe, a majority of Republicans (54 per cent) said they felt safer after the strike.

A staggering 90 per cent of Democrats said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the Iran conflict, while 87 per cent of Republicans approved of Mr Trump’s actions.

Still, majorities from both Democrats and Republicans said they were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about another potential “full-scale war” in the Middle East, including 94 per cent of Democrats and 52 per cent of Republicans.

Soleimani, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, was killed in a 2 January airstrike after the US linked him to attacks on its embassy in Baghdad a week earlier. The US Department of Defence said in a statement about the killing that Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," without sharing evidence about the alleged plans.

US forces in Iraq were then the subject of a ballistic missile attack carried out by Iran nearly a week later, damaging two Iraqi bases housing US and coalition troops.

No casualties were reported in the attack, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the move was not meant to escalate the conflict into a full-scale war.

“Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched”, the foreign minister wrote on Twitter: “We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”

The same poll also reflected deep divisions across party lines when it comes to the domestic impeachment saga plaguing the White House.

A majority of Democrats responded to a question about the House Speaker withholding articles of impeachment from the Senate by saying she was “abiding by a constitutional duty to ensure a full and deliberate trial in the Senate”, ABC News reported.

Meanwhile, 81 per cent of Republicans agreed with a statement saying the move showed Ms Pelosi and the Democratic Party were “just playing partisan politics” by not transmitting the articles to the Senate.