Poll: Forty-three percent of Americans approve of Trump's airstrike of Soleimani

Savannah Behrmann | USA TODAY

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WASHINGTON – Forty-three percent of Americans approve of President Donald Trump's airstrike that targeted Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, the second most powerful leader in Iran and commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a new poll released Monday.

In the HuffPost-YouGov survey, 30 percent of those surveyed said they strongly approved of the decision, while another 13 percent said they somewhat approved.

Conversely, 38 percent of respondents said they either somewhat or strongly disapprove of the airstrike.

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The airstrike late last week that killed Soleimani has Iran vowing to retaliate against the United States. Trump responded Sunday to those threats by reiterating a warning of targeting Iranian cultural sites, which critics say could amount to a war crime.

When asked whether they think the president has a "clear strategy for dealing with Iran," 32 percent of respondents said they think he does, while 47 percent said they think he does not. Additionally, 21 percent said they were not sure.

Congressional Democrats have complained that Trump did not inform leaders on Capitol Hill before taking action, as presidents have done ahead of other military moves in recent years.

Trump sent Congress a document on Saturday informing lawmakers of his military action as required by the War Powers Act of 1973, and on Sunday he posted an apparently mocking tweet, which he said "will serve as notification" that he will strike Iran if the country attacks "any U.S. person or target."

More: Iran's Supreme Leader weeps at Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s funeral as masses mourn

Respondents were also asked whether they think Trump should have received congressional authorization before the airstrike, to which 44 percent said they think he should have, while 34 percent said they didn't think he needed to and another 22 percent answered they were not sure.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the document sent by Trump "prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran."

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has introduced a resolution barring the use of further military force against Iran without congressional authorization.

A majority of respondents — at 57 percent — said they believe the airstrike makes military conflict with Iran more likely than before, while 8 percent said they think it would make it less likely.

Administration officials have said Soleimani was plotting attacks on Americans in the Middle East and that he presented an imminent threat; however, neither the White House nor the Pentagon has detailed any specific planned attacked yet.

"We took action last night to stop a war," Trump said Friday at Mar-a-Lago. "We did not take action to start a war."

More: 'I want to have peace.' How Trump went from a vow to avoid conflict to an order to kill Iran general

The poll seems to be largely split between party lines with 71 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they disapprove of the airstrike while 84 percent of Republicans and right-leaning independents stated they approved.

The HuffPost-YouGov poll has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points and was conducted between Jan. 3-5 among a population of 1,000 adults.

Contributing: William Cummings, David Jackson, Courtney Subramanian, John Fritze