The extreme positions Trump proposes — and Republicans embrace

Analysis by Aaron Blake, CNNSat, April 18, 2026 at 8:00 AM UTC

0

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before walking to board Marine One, as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House on April 16. - Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump this month threatened to strike Iranian infrastructure in ways that might well be war crimes. Then he threatened something much more severe, saying: “A whole civilization will die tonight.”

The threats shocked the political world and even some prominent Trump allies who suddenly distanced themselves.

But to the Republican base, they were no big deal, according to polls released this week. In fact, they were actually good on balance.

And it’s merely the latest example of Trump proposing rather extreme ideas that are then quickly embraced by much of the GOP base.

A Quinnipiac University poll this week showed 66% of Republicans said they supported bombing power plants and other civilian infrastructure in Iran if negotiations do not succeed. (The survey question did not mention that this would likely be a war crime.)

And it was pretty much only Republicans; Democrats opposed the idea 95%-3%, and independents also opposed it overwhelmingly, 77-18%.

The numbers were virtually the same across the board when it came to Trump’s social media threat to end Iranian civilization, which 62% of Republicans labeled “acceptable” but others overwhelmingly said was not.

(It’s worth emphasizing that the poll question was about making the threat, not following through on it.)

A CBS News-YouGov poll over the weekend showed something similar.

After displaying the social-media post in full, twice as many Republicans said they liked it (nearly half) as said they disliked it (about 2 in 10). Another 31% were neutral.

If this feels familiar, there’s a reason for that. Over and over again for a decade, Trump has floated ideas that almost seemed intended to test his base’s loyalty — to see just how far they would go to stand by him.

They’ve repeatedly shown they’ll go plenty far, even on ideas widely rejected by independents.

When Trump said in 2023 that he wanted to be a dictator, but only for a day, he later said it was just a joke. But Republicans still signed off on the idea; a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll showed 74% of them said it would be a “good thing.”

Advertisement

When Trump around the same time said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that don’t pay enough, Quinnipiac showed Republicans about evenly split on the idea. While 38% were in favor, 39% opposed it. The rest didn’t take a position.

Trump has often floated or joked about running for a third term, even though it would be unconstitutional. A Reuters-Ipsos poll a year ago showed more Republicans opposed it than supported it, but 44% still supported Trump pursuing this patently unlawful idea.

As Trump has taken office and pursued a more expansive and often-militaristic foreign policy, he’s proposed a number of ideas that can safely be called outside-the-box — and that Republicans soon embraced.

When Trump briefly floated the US taking over Gaza last year, Quinnipiac showed 49% of Republicans endorsed the idea. And 41% supported it even when a Reuters-Ipsos poll noted it would involve “resettling Palestinians elsewhere” — also known as ethnic cleansing.

Another Reuters-Ipsos poll last month showed 58% of Republicans supported striking cartels inside Mexico, as Trump has often floated, even while qualifying that it would be “without the permission of the Mexican government.” In other words, it would be an act of war against a neighbor.

And that wasn’t a one-off.

As Trump has floated military action in a bevy of other countries in recent months, a Marist College poll in January showed Republicans embraced pretty much all of it. At least 7 in 10 endorsed military action in Mexico, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. It was less popular for Greenland, but 57% supported that, too.

And after Trump a year ago seemed to float incarcerating US citizens in prison in El Salvador — an idea that appears transparently illegal — a Marquette University Law School poll showed 64% of Republicans endorsed the idea.

There is some question here about just how much Trump’s base truly likes these ideas, versus saying they like them because the president they like is proposing them.

But it illustrates a broader theme of Trump’s presidency. In just the last few years, Trump has gotten his supporters to rhetorically sign off on several illegal ideas, potential war crimes, threatening the extermination of a civilization and doing seemingly whatever he wants with the US military.

Through a steadily broadening set of provocations, he’s expanded the Overton window and then exploited that newly expanded window. He’s used that to grow his power and get right-wing buy-in on actions and threats that were once considered unthinkable.

And perhaps nothing drives that home like the hypotheticals Republicans are willing to embrace in a very real war in Iran.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Breaking”