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President Donald Trump speaks to Air Force personnel.
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Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former director for European affairs for the National Security Council, said in a tweet Monday that “we do not need four more years of failure” under President Trump.
“Trump has failed to deliver for the military, national defense, and national security,” wrote Vindman, who was fired from the NSC after raising concerns about Trump’s infamous July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Nothing can be more damning than a Republican Admin. losing the support of military personnel and their families.”
But is Trump really losing the support of the troops? It certainly looks that way, as you can see from the recent results from a Military Times poll:
“It’s fair to say that Trump is not as popular as Republican nominees have been in the past among this group,” Peter Feaver, a former White House adviser to George W. Bush and current Duke University professor, was quoted as saying by the Military Times. “The bottom line is that in 2020, Trump can’t be claiming to have overwhelming support in the military.”
Feaver added that the shift away from historic norms doesn’t necessarily show an embrace of the Democrats and their policies on behalf of the military, rather it appears to be more a matter of “they aren’t thinking like Trump Republicans.”
To be fair, Trump’s popularity in the poll is still better than former President Barack Obama’s, who had a 36% favorable rating and a 52% unfavorable rating in a January 2017.
