Active military personnel support Trump over Clinton, Sanders, new survey suggests

Donald Trump says anything he thinks people will want to hear.

(Image credit: AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

published 10 May 2016

If the 2016 election were held just among active-duty military service members, reservists, and members of the National Guard, Donald Trump would win in a landslide, according to a new poll from Military Times. Trump beats Hillary Clinton, 54 percent to 25 percent, and Bernie Sanders, 51 percent to 38. More than 20 percent of respondents said they would not vote for either Clinton or Trump, while 11 percent would sit out Trump-Sanders.

The survey is "not a scientific sampling of military voting patterns," Military Times cautions, explaining that they solicited "voluntary, confidential" participation from 59,000 subscribers May 3-6, and got 951 responses from verified active-duty military personnel. But the results do "show strong support for Trump among troops despite critics' attacks that he lacks foreign policy or national security experience," Military Times says, and the details are probably more interesting than the topline figures.

Support for Trump was strongest among enlisted personnel and Marines, while officers backed Trump over Clinton by a narrower 46-32 margin, for example. Clinton won among female troops (51 percent to 24 percent), while male troops backed Trump, 57 percent to 22 percent. Also, nearly half of respondents identified themselves as Republicans versus 18 percent who said they were Democrats, and "that partisan divide accounted for much of Trump's support." Political independents favored Trump by a margin of 40 percent to 32 percent. You can read more at Military Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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