CBS News poll analysis on Trump's political base and its views on approach to Venezuela
In our recent polling about Venezuela and potential U.S. military action, we noted that among President Trump's GOP base, MAGA Republicans in particular were even more supportive of potential action than non-MAGA Republicans.
It's a sizable two-thirds majority, and certainly far higher than the third of Americans overall, even if not universal. Some recent context: MAGA Republicans have been consistently supportive of Mr. Trump across a range of issues, including dealings overseas. After the U.S. strikes on Iran in June, for instance, more than nine in 10 MAGA Republicans were supportive — an even higher rate than the already-strong Republican support was for that overall.
Most do still want to hear more now: Most MAGA Republicans, as with most of the public overall, say the president needs to explain decisions about military action in Venezuela. Yet, there is plenty of deference to his judgment on such matters, as the idea that he doesn't need to explain is relatively more prevalent among them.
In this case, they might perceive action as being in US interests - or, it's that Republicans are listening to some of the administration's arguments around the situation.
Republicans say military action would decrease drugs coming into the U.S., and this belief is especially prevalent among MAGA. By and large Americans overall are skeptical
But even with that, most MAGA are not seeing Venezuela as a major threat, nor do Americans overall.
From a more general ideological perspective, we get some insight into this from looking at how Republicans, including MAGA, see the "America First" policy approach as it relates to foreign policy more broadly (not just about Venezuela.) They tend to see the label as meaning the U.S. will get involved in international affairs but only to promote its own interests, not that the U.S. would stay off the world stage entirely.
But that said, international and foreign policy are not the issues on which Republicans say they are evaluating the president most, and in fact, only a scant 5% say that.
For MAGA Republicans, most important issues are immigration and deportation, with twice as many saying that as the economy and inflation.
And they rate Mr. Trump's handling of immigration at 97% approval.
This analysis is based on a CBS News/YouGov survey that was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,489 U.S. adults interviewed between November 19-21, 2025. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.4 points.
