Poll: Trump Most Hawkish Republican

Republican voters see their presidential candidates as hawks on U.S. foreign policy, leaving Sen. Rand Paul as the lone dovish GOP candidate in 2016, a new YouGov poll shows.

According to the poll, published Sunday, 47% of Republicans see Paul as a dove when it comes to foreign policy, compared to only 13% who see him ask a hawk. By contrast, 71% of Republicans see Donald Trump as a hawk, as well as 55% of voters across the board.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union program Sunday morning, Trump said his doctrine is “very simple.”

“It’s strength. It’s strength. Nobody is going to mess with us. Our military is going to be made much stronger,” Trump told Jake Tapper.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz follow Trump with a majority viewing their foreign policy proposals as hawkish. Jeb Bush is viewed as a hawk by 38% compared to 29% who see him like a dove. 67% are not sure what John Kasich’s foreign policy stances are.

The poll also shows that a majority of Republicans (56%) say foreign policy issues will be “very important” in determining their vote for president next year. Just a third of Democratic voters see it as very important. 55% of Republicans expressed a desire to see the next president be more willing to use military force abroad than President Barack Obama. Among all voters, 27% want the nest president to be more open to using military forces when needed while 26% want to follow Obama’s doctrine.

When asked which presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, would best handle America’s foreign policy, 22% picked Hillary Clinton, followed by 13% who picked Trump. Among Republican voters, Trump leads the pack with 28%, followed by Rubio (11%) and Cruz (9%). Only 5% see Bush as best suited to handle U.S. foreign policy, slightly behind Clinton, who registers 7% among GOP voters.