Americans are suddenly much more supportive of the United States capturing Nicolás Maduro than they were one week ago, CNN’s Harry Enten revealed.
Before America wrenched the Venezuelan dictator and his wife from their home in Saturday morning’s stunning smash-and-grab military operation, only 21 percent of Americans approved of the U.S. military ousting Maduro, while 47 percent disapproved, the 37-year-old data analyst noted on Tuesday’s CNN News Central.
“After the ousting? Look at that!” said Enten with a dramatic clap of his hands. “The support through the roof! Now, we’re talking about 37 percent, well within the margin of error of the opposition, 38 percent.”
“Americans like what they deem to be successful foreign policy operations,” Enten added. “In this case, they see the ousting of Maduro, at least up to this point, as a successful one, and therefore, the support? Way up.”
Saturday’s capture of Maduro, which the president has publicly and privately hinted was done so the U.S. could seize control of Venezuela’s oil, has earned Trump strong condemnation from his allies both in Congress and abroad.
But, at least for the time being, Trump has gotten a modest polling bump from the jaw-dropping raid.
“It’s a direction I think the president of the United States will like,” Enten mused.
Such a bump for a controversial military operation isn’t unprecedented. Enten noted a similar bump in favorability for the U.S.’s June strikes in Iran targeted at taking out that country’s nuclear capabilities.
“Americans. Like. Success!” Enten emphasized. “We can go back to those Iran strikes in the middle of last year. Net approval for the U.S. airstrikes in Iran: in June, the net approval rating was -9 points. But by July, that moved to +4 points.
“I think the two major U.S. operations overseas, military… the American people were quite skeptical at first, and then came much more around to Donald Trump’s point of view once the military took action,” he added.
While the numbers represent a stunning twist in American opinion in the immediate aftermath of the Maduro raid, both Enten and CNN News Central host John Berman made a point to note it may not be a lasting bump.
“These things can change again depending on conditions inside those countries,” said Berman. “But where things stand now, very notable.
American opinion on foreign military operations has historically spiked and dipped before. Even former Fox News host and Trump defender Megyn Kelly cautioned against getting fired up for U.S. military intervention in other countries.
“I have seen what happens when you cheerlead, unabashedly, U.S. intervention in foreign countries, thinking it’s for our good and for the national and international good, only to wind up with what we’ve called a quagmire in places like Iraq, not to mention Libya,” she said Monday on The Megyn Kelly Show.
American support of the Iraq War was at 72 percent when it began in March of 2003. By 2023, only 36 percent of Americans believed the war in Iraq was justified.
The post CNN Data Guru Reveals Polling Twist on Trump’s Controversial Move appeared first on The Daily Beast.
