
In the days since the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and seized “control” of his government, President Trump has threatened to use force in several other countries and territories as well: Greenland, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Iran.
But Americans say they would oppose U.S. military intervention in each of these places by wide margins, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll.
Trump has long speculated, for instance, about acquiring the massive, largely uninhabited Arctic island of Greenland. “One way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland,” Trump told reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One. Meanwhile, the White House has confirmed that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option” there.
Yet military action in the Danish-controlled territory — a move that would mean “the end of NATO,” according to European leaders — garners little support among Americans.
Just 14% would favor U.S. forces intervening in Greenland; a full 62% say they would oppose it. Even Republicans are more likely to oppose (36%) than favor (32%) striking Greenland.
The new Yahoo/YouGov survey of 1,709 U.S. adults was conducted from Jan. 8 to 12, shortly after Maduro and his wife were flown to New York and jailed on drug trafficking charges — and just as Trump was turning his attention elsewhere.
When asked on Jan. 4 about a potential military operation in Colombia, the president said, "Sounds good to me." The same day, Trump mused that Cuba looks “like it is ready to fall,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the country’s Communist leaders are “in a lot of trouble.” Last Thursday, the president told Fox News he wanted to launch land strikes on drug cartels in Mexico. And he has repeatedly declared that the U.S. military is “locked and loaded” and ready to attack if the Iranian government doesn’t curb its violent crackdown on protesters.
None of these efforts, however, would be popular with the American people. Only 24% would support U.S. military intervention in Colombia. Only 25% would support it in Mexico. And only 26% would support it in Cuba. In contrast, a majority of Americans say they would oppose U.S. military intervention in all three countries: 52% in Cuba, 53% in Colombia and 55% in Mexico.
The only country where opposition to military action doesn’t clear the 50% threshold is Iran; it falls just short at 48%. But support for using force there is still nearly 20 percentage points lower, at just 29%.
Even among Republicans, support for U.S. military intervention in Mexico, Cuba, Colombia and Iran is relatively tepid, with about half saying they would favor it, about a quarter saying they would oppose it and another quarter or so saying they’re not sure.
Those numbers reflect wider concerns about U.S. foreign policy that transcend party lines:
Just 30% of Americans — including less than half of Republicans (48%) — believe that “it is generally worth it for the U.S. to intervene abroad because doing so tends to make the world a better place.” Far more (47%) say it is “generally not worth it for the U.S. to intervene abroad because doing so tends to detract from our priorities at home.”
Only 12% of Americans — including just 25% of Republicans — think the U.S. “should take control of other countries by force if it serves our interests,” as it just did in Venezuela. More than two-thirds of Americans (67%) say the U.S. should not do this.
And only 28% of Americans — including just about half of Republicans (51%) — agree with the worldview recently espoused by top Trump adviser Stephen Miller: "You can talk all you want about international niceties, but we live in a world that is governed by force. The U.S. should use its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere."
In the end, Trump appears to be moving ahead with his plan to acquire Greenland — if not militarily, then diplomatically. On Tuesday, a senior administration official told USA Today to expect meaningful U.S. action related to the Arctic island within "weeks or months.”
“That's where President Trump wants to move it — at high speed,” the official said.
But even a peaceful effort wouldn’t be particularly well-received. In March, Americans told Yahoo and YouGov that they opposed annexing Greenland 49% to 19%. Today, that gap is even bigger: 53% to 20%.
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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,709 U.S. adults interviewed online from Jan. 8 to 12, 2026. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3.1%.
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