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25 years after 9/11, Americans fear domestic extremists more than foreign attacks
Reuters, Washington
Published: 08 Sep 2026, 10:12 PM
Flowers amongst the names on the North Pool at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, US, 31 August 2026. Photo: Reuters
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks focused US
fears on threats from abroad, Americans are now considerably more worried about
attacks by domestic extremists than by foreign groups, a Reuters/Ipsos poll
found.
When asked to name the biggest threat to the safety of
average Americans, 33% of respondents picked "domestic terrorism,"
while 20% picked foreign terror and 42% pointed to random acts of violence such
as mass shootings, the August 28-31 poll found.
The picture was much different a decade ago. Reuters/Ipsos polling from mid-2013 showed 21% of Americans viewed domestic terror as the top threat, less than the 28% who pointed to foreign terror and 51% who picked random acts of violence.
Foreign al Qaeda militants crashed airplanes into New York
City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington on 11 September 2001,
killing thousands and sparking decades of war, including the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan, where al Qaeda leaders were based.
Al Qaeda also inspired the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, in
which a pair of foreign-born brothers killed three and injured more than 260,
with a fourth person killed a few days later.
Fears of domestic extremism
But the US has also seen many domestically inspired attacks,
including the 2016 mass shooting that killed 49 people at a Florida gay
nightclub and other attacks on Black, Latino or Jewish Americans. President
Donald Trump himself faced multiple assassination attempts, including a 2024
shooting that wounded his ear, and conservative activist Charlie Kirk was
gunned down in September 2025 while speaking to university students in Utah.
Asked which ideology-driven attacks pose the bigger threat,
61% of respondents in the latest poll picked domestic extremists and 34% picked
those from abroad.
The legacy of the September 11 attacks remains strong, the
survey found. Six in 10 people say they periodically think about the attacks
and roughly the same share say they would support a military response if there
were another major attack.
But Americans do not believe that wars that followed 9/11 were
worth the cost. Some 48% said the war in Afghanistan was not worth its toll,
compared with 21% who said it was, while the rest were unsure or didn't answer
the question. The war in Iraq was similarly unpopular, with 51% disapproving
and 21% approving.
Public disapproval of those wars played a role in Trump's
rise, as he campaigned on a platform of avoiding enduring wars.
Trump himself launched a war on Iran six months ago that has
eluded efforts for a speedy resolution. The poll found only 25% of Americans
think the conflict has been worth it, compared with 54% who think it hasn't
been.
Support for increased security
Six in 10 Americans - including eight in 10 Republicans -
think the US government response to the September 11 attacks has been at least
somewhat effective in preventing attacks against Americans on US soil.
A bipartisan majority - including 71% of Democrats and 75%
of Republicans - think the beefed-up airport security that took hold following
the September 11 attacks has been worth the disruptions to people's trips.
Americans are also more inclined to support government-run airport security, with only 23% supporting an idea studied by the Trump administration that would replace federal security with private contractors. Forty-eight percent were opposed, the poll found.
The expansion of domestic surveillance after 2001 has been
less popular, with 65% opposed to allowing US intelligence agencies to monitor
electronic communications of US citizens without a warrant. A 2008 law that
allowed that to happen lapsed in June, though the Trump administration has
asked Congress to reauthorize the practice.
Most Americans look back on September 11 as an event that
unified the country, and 75% of the country thinks it had a major impact on the
nation, far more than the 41% who think the 2007-2009 financial crisis had a
major impact.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,167 US adults nationwide, with margins of error between 3 and 6 percentage points.