Voter Sentiment Shifting on U.S. Military Presence in South Korea, Western Europe

Earlier this month, President Trump announced that he did not plan on withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea despite ongoing peace talks between that country and its northern neighbor. Though voters are less likely to say the U.S. military is overstretched, far fewer now oppose pulling troops out of South Korea, and more support withdrawing troops from Western Europe.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. voters think the U.S. military is overstretched these days, down from 55% last July and a previous low of 51% in early 2015. Thirty-six percent (36%) now think the U.S. military can adequately handle the number of missions it has, up from 29% last summer and a new high. Another 18% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 6-7, 2018, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.