About 25 percent of troops are scared that incoming GOP President-elect Donald Trump may issue orders that violate military rules.
According to a new poll conducted after the election by Military Times and the Institute for Military and Veterans Families, although there is strong support for Trump among the military, there are still some troops who maintain reservations. Interestingly, many of those troops are female. Fifty-five percent of women said they are concerned about adverse affects on their work. Overall, 27 percent of respondents stated that Trump will harm their job or mission.
But respondents generally were positive.
A total of 60 percent think that Trump will be able to successfully work with legislators to fix the issue of defense spending caps. And then there’s the problem of personnel pay raises falling below 2 percent, due to President Barack Obama’s intended raise of only 1.6 percent.
About 56 percent of respondents said they believe Trump will increase pay and benefits, a belief that based on many of the statements he has given in public about making the military “so strong and powerful and so respected, we’re not going to have to nuke anybody.”
His policy platform also states he wants an increase of the U.S. Army to 540,000 active-duty troops. He also wants to boost the Marine Corps is well, moving the service to 36 battalions.
An analysis from Charles Tiefer at Forbes estimates that Trump’s defense plans will cost an additional $500 billion to $1 trillion.
When it comes to Trump’s aggressive rhetoric on the Islamic State, 54 percent think he’ll be able to tackle the problem.
The sample size of the survey, conducted from Nov. 10-14, consisted of 2,790 active-duty troops, 86 percent of whom were male. The mean age of the sample was 29.6 years old, and the margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Out of all the troops surveyed who voted, 51 percent chose Trump in the presidential election.
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