Three-quarters of the Americans who voted for President Trump in 2024 are backing further economic sanctions on Russia as it continues its war against Ukraine, a new poll shows.
The Vandenberg Coalition in late June found that around 77% of Trump voters viewed Russia as a threat, 75% backed additional sanctions, and 70% said it was “vital to prevent Russia from invading other European nations,” according to results obtained exclusively by The Post.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed Sunday that Trump had given him the go-ahead on a bill he introduced to tighten sanctions on Moscow.
“If you’re buying products from Russia and you’re not helping Ukraine, then there’s a 500% tariff on your products coming to the United States,” Graham said of his proposal on ABC News‘ “This Week.”
“India and China buy 70% of Putin’s oil. They keep his war machine going,” he said, noting that his measure, which has more than 80 co-sponsors, “would allow the president to put tariffs on China and India and other countries to get them stop them from supporting Putin’s war machine and get them to the table.
“[Trump] has a waiver; it’s up to him how to impose it,” the South Carolina Republican added. “We’re going to give President Trump a tool in the toolbox that he doesn’t have, after the July break.”
The Vandenberg poll also found that a large majority of pro-Trump voters — including self-described MAGA supporters — are more inclined to back a strong US presence on the world’s stage.
Just 29% said the nation should be more reactive to international affairs, compared with the 71% who said America should be taking the lead.
That’s in contrast to some of the isolationist rhetoric Trump peddled on the 2024 campaign trail.
He then made the decision to conduct airstrikes against Iran nuclear facilities last month.
As many as 92% of the voters expressed that the US maintaining global hegemony over Russia, Iran or China makes the world safer.
“For years, the only image of American involvement abroad was Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Vandenberg Executive Director Carrie Filipetti.
“But President Trump’s strikes replaced the image of the fall of Kabul with the image of American pilots flying 33 hours straight and perfectly executing a devastating strike on an adversary’s illegal nuclear program — all without a single shot fired at our troops.”
Several surveys preceded the US strikes against Iran — an offensive dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer” — that involved the massive B-2 bombing of Tehran’s uranium enrichment sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
In May, just 24% of Republicans supported military action in Iran, according to a University of Maryland Critical Issues poll. An Economist/YouGov survey just days before the US military strikes showed 19% favored bombings.
With respect to the US-Russia relationship, the Pew Research Center had also found that 45% of GOP voters saw the Kremlin as a competitor whereas 40% said it was an enemy.
The latest polling coalition, named for the mid-20th century Michigan Republican Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, is comprised of alums from Republican and Democratic administrations and is chaired by an official specializing in international relations with the first Trump administration, Elliot Abrams.
Vandenberg tapped TargetPoint pollsters to survey 1,225 Trump voters from June 25 to 26 for the poll. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8%.