Americans Are More Bullish Than Ever About US Military Power

By Robert Birsel and John FengShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

A majority of Americans want the United States to be a leading actor in global affairs and are in favor of supporting Ukraine and defending Taiwan, according to a new public opinion poll.

The annual Reagan National Defense Survey, released on Thursday by the Reagan Institute, polled 2,507 U.S. adults from October 23 to November 3.

Why It Matters

The survey found strong support among Americans for active U.S. engagement in the world, backed by longstanding alliances like NATO, seemingly at variance with the "America First" philosophy of President Donald Trump's administration.

Americans in general were confidence about the U.S. military's qualitative edge over America's top adversaries—55 percent said the U.S. had "superiority" in overall military strength against rising superpower China. A plurality of respondents—44 percent—said the U.S. should maintain a military "large enough to win separate wars against China and Russia at the same time."

The results may assure Ukraine and Taiwan in particular as their leaders come under increasing pressure from their authoritarian neighbors in Europe and in Asia, but whether the U.S. public's theoretical support translates to concrete U.S. government action is another matter.

What To Know

Sixty-four percent of respondents said it was better for the United States "to be more engaged and take the lead" in international events, while 87 percent said it was important that the U.S. had the most powerful military in the world, with a further 71 percent agreeing that the world was "more likely to achieve peace" with the U.S. as the strongest power.

“Our findings show that Americans want the United States to lead globally, maintain a military strong enough to deter authoritarian adversaries, and stand by allies who are on the front lines of defending freedom,” the Reagan Institute said.

Sixty-two percent of Americans, including 57 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of Democrats, said they wanted Ukraine to prevail in its war with Russia. Support for sending U.S. weapons rose nine points to 64 percent, including among 59 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of Democrats, the institute said.

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On the question of U.S. rivals, China remained at the top of Americans’ list of countries posing the greatest threat, at 48 percent. Russia was second at 26 percent, while 87 percent were concerned about growing cooperation among China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

The Reagan Institute also found that approval for NATO had reached its highest level since its polling began, with 68 percent holding a favorable view of the North Atlantic Alliance. Trump has raised questions about the U.S. role in NATO, although concerns that he might quit the treaty have abated since its European members boosted defense spending.

The U.S. public's support for defending Taiwan has risen sharply since 2024. China claims the democratically governed island as its own and has threatened to invade if necessary in order to secure its claim.

This year, 70 percent of respondents said they would support moving U.S. military assets to the region if China attacked Taiwan, up 12 points; 71 percent favored sending more military equipment to Taiwan in such a scenario, up 15 points; and 60 percent were prepared to commit U.S. forces to the defense of Taiwan, also up 12 points, according to the polling data.

“Support for defending Taiwan is strong, bipartisan, and growing," the institute said.

While 62 percent of Americans backed the use of U.S. military force against suspected drug traffickers in Latin America and the Caribbean, the support was split along partisan lines, with 90 percent of those identified as MAGA Republicans in favor compared with 36 percent of Democrats, its report said.

But the survey also revealed that overall public confidence in the U.S. military as an institution had declined significantly since the first annual survey in 2018. This year, 49 percent of Americans reported a great deal of confidence in the military, down 21 points from 2018, but roughly the same as last year.

“The reason for that decline is the perception, on both sides of the aisle over the years, that the military has become politicized,” Rachel Hoff, policy director at the Reagan Institute, told Newsweek.

“There’s a widening partisan gap on trust in our military: confidence among Republicans has rebounded to 67 percent, while confidence among Democrats has dropped to 33 percent. Unfortunately, that divergence is what you might expect when the public starts to see the military through a political lens,” she said.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they had trust and confidence in the military to win a war overseas, up 5 points from 2022, and 45 percent to deter foreign aggression, up 3 points over the same period.

On technology, a bipartisan majority of 68 percent supported a major increase in federal spending to develop the Golden Dome system to protect the U.S. homeland against long-range missile threats, but public views on artificial intelligence were less clear-cut.

Twenty-seven percent said greater AI integration in the U.S. military was a good idea, up from 20 percent in 2023, while 24 percent said the opposite, down from 27 percent two years ago, the institute said.

What People Are Saying

Rachel Hoff, policy director at the Ronald Reagan Institute, told Newsweek: “Americans have consistently shown that they want the United States to lead, not withdraw, from the world. This year, nearly two-thirds say the United States should be more engaged internationally.

"Our polling consistently shows that MAGA Republicans in particular support U.S. leadership abroad, and President Trump himself has rejected the idea that the MAGA or America First are isolationist movements. Overall public support for defending Taiwan, aiding Ukraine, and deterring Iran aligns with the posture President Trump’s voters prefer: a '“'peace through strength'” ' approach to American leadership.”