People worldwide trust Putin more than they trust Trump, says US think-tank poll

Trade wars with key economic partners, continuing military operations abroad, and the ongoing split among US political elites have been thought to do little for the president’s image. This conclusion appears to have been confirmed by the poll.

According to recent research conducted by Washington-based think tank Pew Research Center, people now trust Vladimir Putin more than Donald Trump. Over 26,000 people were surveyed for the study in 25 countries throughout the world.

The right foreign policy

Some 30 percent of people trusted the Russian president and described his foreign policy as correct. This compared to 27 percent who said the same about the current leader of the United States.

Chairman of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping enjoys an even higher trust rating of 34 percent, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the poll with 52 percent.

Commenting on the reasons behind the results, Pew analysts noted that people across the world were worried by the US’ role in international relations, and Washington’s extreme reluctance to consider the interests of other nations when solving various problems.

Russia’s attitude to US deteriorating during Trump’s presidency

The same research also looked at the attitudes of average Russians to Donald Trump and US policies. It found that the share of Russians who think that the US president takes their country’s interests into consideration remained the same since 2013 – about 25 percent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of Russians who think that the United States leader is doing the right things in the international arena fell from 53 percent in 2013 to 19 percent today. The share of Russians who described their attitude to the United States as a nation as ‘good’ also decreased from 41 to 26 percent.

Russians also showed the weakest support to the idea of the US being the leading nation in the world, along with Argentina, Italy and Tunisia.

Recent Russian research yielded similar result

In January this year, Russia’s domestic think tank Levada released the results of a poll showing that 66 percent of the Russian public think that their country has enemies in the international arena. When respondents were asked to name these enemies, most people – 68 percent – mentioned the United States, with Ukraine taking the second place with 29 percent. The European Union was third with 14 percent.

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