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America First

Polling really does show broad, cross-partisan fatigue with military spending and interventionist wars, and broad support for investing at home instead. What the polling doesn't show is a simple bipartisan consensus to “stop funding Israel” — that fight runs by generation more than by party, including inside the coalition that coined “America First.” Here's what's actually been reported, plainly.

Last updated September 29, 2026

Terms

America First
A slogan revived by Donald Trump's political movement to mean prioritizing U.S. domestic interests over foreign military and financial commitments. The label itself is contested even within that movement — see below.
Restraint / non-interventionism
The foreign-policy position that the U.S. should sharply limit military intervention and permanent troop commitments abroad. Historically associated with the anti-war left and libertarian right alike.
NDAA
The National Defense Authorization Act, Congress's annual bill setting Pentagon policy and spending levels. It passes most years with large bipartisan majorities, regardless of which cuts or add-ons were debated first.

Where the polling actually agrees

A Verasight/The Argument poll (April 20–23, 2026) found the military was, by far, the spending category voters were most likely to say the government spends too much on. A companion YouGov/The Economist poll (April 24–27, 2026) found 67% of voters said the government spends too little on health care, with majorities also favoring more spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' programs, and education. Neither poll broke that sentiment down by party because the sentiment itself doesn't split cleanly by party — it shows up on both sides.

Infrastructure spending backs that up with an actual bill, not just a poll: the BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year, roughly $580 billion surface-transportation reauthorization, was introduced May 17, 2026 jointly by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), with Republican and Democratic subcommittee leaders as additional lead sponsors. The committee approved it 62–2 on May 22, 2026.

What Congress actually does with that agreement

The gap between what voters say they want and what their representatives in both parties actually vote for is wide and long-running. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has repeatedly forced a vote on cutting the Pentagon budget by 10% to redirect the savings domestically; it has never come close to passing:

Jul. 2020House rejects 10% Pentagon cut, 324–93
Jul. 2023Senate rejects 10% Pentagon cut, 88–11
2026Senate “overwhelmingly” rejects Sanders' veterans-dental Pentagon cut
Jul. 22, 2026House passes $1.15T NDAA, 216–212, with Section 219 intact

In July 2020, the House rejected a 10% Pentagon cut 324–93, with all Republicans joined by 139 Democrats. In July 2023, the Senate rejected a similar Sanders amendment to the FY2024 NDAA 88–11 — the only Republican "yes" was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). In 2026, a Sanders amendment to redirect 10% of the Pentagon's discretionary budget into VA dental care for veterans was, again, voted down by an overwhelming margin. Meanwhile, the $1.15 trillion FY2026 NDAA itself passed the House 216–212 on July 22, 2026 — a genuinely close vote, but on final passage of a record-size bill, not on cutting it.

By the numbers

Voters who say the military is overfunded, most of any category
Top pick
Say government spends too little on health care
67%
Committee vote for the bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act
62–2

Verasight/The Argument, April 2026; YouGov/The Economist, April 2026; House T&I Committee, May 2026.

Stopping aid to Israel: generational, not partisan

This is the one place the "we all want the same thing" framing breaks down as a clean party story — but a real, well-documented cross-cutting story exists underneath it, just organized by age more than by party. A Pew Research poll (April 2026) found 84% of Democrats age 18–49 view Israel unfavorably, versus 76% of Democrats 50 and older — and, more strikingly, 57% of Republicans 18–49 view Israel unfavorably, versus just 24% of Republicans 50 and older. Younger Republicans are far closer to younger Democrats on this than to their own party's older base.

That shows up in other polling too: a YouGov/IMEU poll found 53% of Republicans age 18–44 want to end U.S. military aid packages to Israel entirely, compared to 40% of Republicans 45 and older who oppose a new 20-year aid agreement. On the Democratic side, a New York Times/Siena poll (May 21, 2026) found nearly three-quarters of Democratic voters now oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, up from 45% three years earlier, with 60% saying they're more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, versus 15% more sympathetic to Israel.

The clearest legislative proof this crosses party lines: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) led a joint amendment to strip Section 219 — a provision codifying a permanent U.S.–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative — from the FY2026 NDAA. Seven more Democrats joined them:

Rep. Thomas MassieR — KY
Rep. Ro KhannaD — CA
Rep. Jim McGovernD — MA
Rep. Jesús “Chuy” GarcíaD — IL
Rep. Rashida TlaibD — MI
Rep. Donald Beyer Jr.D — VA
Rep. Jill TokudaD — HI
Rep. Derek TranD — CA
Rep. Joe CourtneyD — CT

House leadership blocked the amendment from getting a floor vote at all. Massie: "Codifying the integration of our military technology and supply chains with those of any other country is dangerous." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), who wasn't part of the formal amendment but spoke against Section 219, called it "an existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy." The NDAA passed with Section 219 intact.

Even “America First” isn’t settled on the right

The label itself is a live fight, not a fixed position. Tucker Carlson — who gave then-Senate candidate JD Vance some of his earliest national airtime in 2022, framing him as the authentic voice of working-class Americans against "endless wars" — has since turned sharply against President Trump, primarily over the June 2025 strikes on Iran. Carlson has said "true America First" was ditched for what benefits Israel and donors rather than American families, and has accused Trump of breaking his own "America First" promises. Vance has defended his relationship with Carlson while continuing to defend Trump's record, putting him between the two camps of a fight over what the phrase is even supposed to mean.

Nonpartisan, plainly

Two of these claims hold up as real, well-documented, cross-partisan agreement: voters in both parties consistently say the Pentagon is overfunded relative to domestic needs, and a genuinely bipartisan infrastructure bill just cleared committee 62–2. What doesn't hold up is "everyone agrees we should stop funding Israel" as a simple bipartisan consensus — polling shows a real, sharp party gap on that question, with Democratic voters far more opposed to aid than Republican voters overall. What's genuinely interesting — and genuinely cross-cutting — is that the gap is closing from the bottom: younger voters in both parties are converging toward skepticism of aid even as their parties' older bases remain far apart, and that generational shift produced a real, if blocked, bipartisan legislative alliance in Massie and Khanna. We're not taking a position on whether any of these policies — cutting the Pentagon budget, reducing aid to Israel, or anything else here — is good policy. These are the facts as reported, plainly, with the sources to check them yourself.

Talking points

These are the questions we think you should ask those who are running for office and will represent you.

  1. Do you support cutting the Pentagon budget to fund domestic priorities like health care, education, or infrastructure — and if not, why has every attempt to do so failed by such lopsided margins?
  2. Do you support continuing, reducing, or ending U.S. military aid to Israel, and what specifically would change your position?
  3. Should Congress vote separately on provisions like Section 219 rather than bundling them into one large defense bill lawmakers must accept or reject as a whole?
  4. What does “America First” mean to you specifically — and where do you disagree with others who use the same term?

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