On world stage Trump loathed as much as Obama was loved, Pew survey shows
Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY


They love him in Israel and India. In the Philippines. And Kenya. Oh, and in Nigeria.

The rest of the world? Not so much.

Confidence in President Donald Trump to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs remains broadly negative, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

The Washington-D.C.-based Pew's study, released Wednesday, found that among people it polled in 32 countries, just 29% expressed confidence in Trump. Sixty-four percent said they lacked confidence in the current White House occupant.

The figures stand in marked contrast to the final years of Barack Obama's presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America's role in the world in a positive manner.

Pew last conducted a survey of this kind in 2017.

The survey published Wednesday was conducted in the spring and summer of 2019, well before the Trump administration's slaying of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, an action that has brought fresh scrutiny to one of Trump's signature foreign-policy moves: exiting the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. It has led to increased tensions between Tehran and Washington.


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Pew noted that "observed shifts in foreign attitudes toward the U.S. and its leader" are sometimes "connected to U.S. policy or actions, as in the case of the Iraq War in 2003; sometimes they reflect domestic realities, such as the case of right-wing voters in Europe recently growing more favorable toward the U.S."


At home, Trump has an approval rating of roughly 45% and a disapproval rating of nearly 53%, with the remaining 2% not sure, according to an average of job approval polls published by RealClearPolitics, a website focused on political analysis.

Distaste for Trump was led by Europe, where approximately three-in-four people – 75% – in Germany, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands lack confidence in Trump. Mexico, too, does not like him, where 89% do not have confidence in Trump.

Anti-Trump sentiment around the world was driven by his foreign policy actions, including increasing tariffs or fees on imported goods from other countries; withdrawing from the international climate change accord; and proposing to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. A majority of those polled also disapproved of Trump’s policies to allow fewer immigrants into the U.S. and his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord.

Trump's attempt to directly negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over that country's nuclear weapons program garnered the most support of all his various foreign policy actions across the 33 countries surveyed – although only a median of 41% of people approve of this action, compared with 36% who disapprove.

Pew, which describes itself as a non-partisan "fact tank" that does not itself take positions on policy decisions, tested the international popularity of four other world leaders in its survey: Germany's Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping.

Trump was more negatively viewed than all the leaders asked about in the survey.

In 12 countries, men are more likely than women to rate Trump positively. For example, 28% of men in Sweden have confidence in the president; just 8% of women do.

Still, overall global attitudes toward the U.S. remain largely favorable, although there are large differences across the 33 nations surveyed for that part of the study. Three Central and Eastern European nations – Poland (79 %), Lithuania (70%) and Hungary (66%) – had the most favorable opinion of the U.S.

Outside of the EU, Ukraine (73%) also scored high, although views about Trump were less favorable (46%). -- and Pew notes the survey in Ukraine was conducted prior to revelations last year about Trump's July 2019 phone call with the country's new president. In Russia, just 29% of those polled viewed America positively.

Israelis give the U.S. its highest rating on the survey (83% favorable). Elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, attitudes were more negative, especially the case in Turkey, where just one-in-five (20%) have a favorable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage registered in the survey.

The survey found that Trump was generally more popular among those on the political right in many of the nations that were polled. Trump's popularity in Israel (70%) partly reflects his decisions to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord.

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