Since taking office on January 20, Donald Trump has called on the Danish government to allow his government to buy Greenland (they declined), has taking to calling Canada the 51st state, has tried to claim ownership of the Panama Canal and wants to take over Gaza forcibly removing 2 million Palestinians and turning the land into what he calls “the rivera of the Middle East.” A new survey found that just 4% of United States citizens think that doing any of this by force is a good idea to expand our territory. 33% favor U.S. expansion but not by force. Almost half (48%) outright oppose the expansion of the country at all. American support for the expansion into the aforementioned territories is also low, though Republicans are in favor generally-if no force is required.
Expanding the U.S. territory by force is low among Democrats (3%), Republicans (6%) and Independents (2%). When force isn’t required, however, Republican support jumps to 51%-twice as likely as Democrats (23%) and Independents (24%).
Fewer than half of Americans support the expansion-by force or otherwise-by taking over the following suggested by President Trump: Panama Canal (42% support), Greenland (33%), Canada (26%), or Gaza (24%). 25% of Republicans think the military should use force to take over the Panama Canal. Republicans are more likely to support the acquisition of the Panama Canal and Greenland than they are Canada or Gaza. Majorities of Democrats oppose expansion into the four territories with or without force.
Trump, in his inaugural address, invoked manifest destiny as a justification for expanding onto Mars. Some define manifest destiny as the belief that American territorial expansion is both justified and inevitable. Views by Americans on the concept are divided: 21% view it very or somewhat positively, 25% view it very or somewhat negatively, 28% view it neither positively or negatively and 26% are not sure. 35% of Democrats vs 14% of Republicans are likely to have a negative view of manifest destiny.
The survey looked at how Americans view other related ideas including colonization (12% positive vs 41% negative), decolonization (29% positive, 14% negative). Multiculturalism was viewed by 48% as a positive and by 15% as a negative. The concept of assimilation was less likely to be viewed favorably (31% found it positive), though while multiculturalism is viewed more positively by Democrats than Republicans, views on assimilation were similar among the parties.