Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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The U.S. House has gabbled out and is now in recess.
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A focus now on a new survey on Americans' views on military spending and international engagement.
Roger Zachheim is our guest.
He's the Washington director of the Ronald Reagan Foundation, Presidential Foundation and Institute, a group whose mission is what?
To advance President Reagan's legacy.
Broadly speaking, in Washington, D.C., I have the honor of being the director of the Reagan Institute, as you mentioned, and here we work on taking Reagan ideas, principles, and values and making sure that those engaged in public policy, be it in the Congress, the executive branch, thought leaders here in town, are really looking at Reagan ideas and principles as they advance U.S. public policy.
How long has the foundation been around?
How are you funded?
Well, the foundation, it's a 501c3 since they started the library back in 1991.
The Institute in D.C. has been around for about six or seven years.
We have our presence right next to A. Adams Hotel across the street from the White House on 16th Street.
And when and why did you decide to start surveying Americans about their views on international engagement and these defense issues that we're going to talk about?
Well, President Reagan had a strong legacy in terms of advancing American leadership in the world, and particularly on advancing peace through strength.
And we for some time have been engaging with America's thought leaders and elected officials on these issues.
We found that it really was a gap in the discussion in terms of where the views are of the American people.
Oftentimes you hear elected officials talk about the American believe X, the American people believe why, but it's not backed up by a lot of evidence.
And so what we sought to do with our survey is to make sure that when it comes to foreign policy, national security, and defense issues, there was actually an annual survey that was a pretty deep dive into the issue set and make sure that our elected officials and policymakers understood where the American people actually were on those very questions.
So how many people did you survey when were you in the field on this?
So we're in the field just after the election.
So in early November, about 2,500 people were reached out to by our polling services.
Some questions were just over 1,500, but overall it was 2,500 respondents.
And some top-line numbers from that survey, this year's survey that we're talking about, 50% overall, including 61% of Trump voters, prefer a, quote, engaged internationalist American leadership approach on the international stage.
79% strongly or somewhat support an increase in defense spending.
That's the highest level ever recorded on one of these surveys.
And 71% supported more defense spending in the Institute's summer 2023 polling.
And so what stuck out from you from those numbers?
Well, the first one you mentioned was really the one that got our attention.
As you mentioned, 57% of American people believe that America should be leading in the world.
And I think surprising to many of those who have looked at our survey, 61% of Trump voters.
There's a big, broad coalition that put President Trump back into office.
There's certainly a pocket of those voters, a slice of those voters, who actually would look to reduce America's role in the world.
But as the survey bears out, the majority of them actually are in line with a very Reagan-esque worldview.
61%, that is up significantly, not just where we were, as you mentioned in our last survey, as we saw where Trump voters were, but there's some demographics here that really stand out.
In addition to the Trump voters, young voters want to see America leading the world.
Significant jump there, I'd say by about 30% since our last survey.
That 61% who want an engaged internationalist American leadership approach.
Is that at odds in your mind with a campaign slogan, a campaign platform that's America First?
Well, I think it's a question of how you have American First.
What is America First?
I think what this survey really bears out, both in terms of what American leadership is and then what President Trump often campaigned on, peace through strength, you can kind of stitch together how the American people are interpreting that.
So American leadership in the world needs to first and foremost be about America's national interests.
I think you will not hear the Trump kind of supporters, folks who are going into the Trump administration talking about America supporting the rules-based international order.
That's not part of their lexicon.
What they want to see in the world is that America is leading.
America's interests are being advanced.
And that I think is what 61% of those Trump voters were probably getting behind.
There's a recognition that for American interests, the American security, American prosperity to be preserved, it can't be done simply by Fortress America.
That to preserve those equities really requires America to lead in the world.
And I think that's the contribution of the survey, certainly on this question.
We're going to dive more into this survey.
Roger Zach Heim is our guest of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
Go ahead and start calling in.
Phone numbers are split this way.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
And then a special line for active and retired military, 202748-8003.
Especially want to hear from you, especially in topics related to the second part of the survey.
Confidence in the U.S. military was one of the subjects that was polled on.
51% of respondents have a great deal of confidence in the military, with another 31% stating that they have at least some confidence.
That's up, as you've pointed out in the results, from a historic low of 45% who had a great deal, high confidence in the military after the withdrawal from Afghanistan late 2021.
Yeah, this is actually one of the more important discoveries we've had since we've done our survey.