Putin, Xi more trusted than Trump worldwide: poll

President Trump ranked below Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in a new worldwide poll that asked respondents about their confidence in global leaders to “do the right thing” in world affairs. 

The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that 64 percent of survey respondents across the 33 participating countries said they have no confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs. Twenty-nine percent said they do have confidence in Trump, and 7 percent said they did not know.

Forty-three percent of survey respondents said they have no confidence in Xi to do the right thing in world affairs, compared to 28 percent who said they do have confidence and 23 percent who said they did not know.  

Meanwhile, 57 percent of survey respondents said they had no confidence in Putin, compared to 33 percent who said they do and 8 percent who said they do not know.

Trump’s favorability rating is especially low in Western Europe, according to the Pew Research Center; approximately three-in-four people in Germany, Sweden, France, Spain and the Netherlands lack confidence in Trump. In Mexico, 89 percent say they do not have confidence in the president.

The disapproval of Trump is largely driven by the administration’s decision to increase tariffs on imported goods. Sixty-eight percent of people said they did not support the policy, while 18 percent did. Disapproval of America’s withdrawal from international climate change agreements and Trump’s border wall between the U.S. and Mexico also polled negatively among the majority of respondents. 

However, 41 percent of those surveyed said they did support “U.S. negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about the country’s weapons program,” compared to 36 percent who disapproved.

There were six nations in which the majority people surveyed said they had confidence in Trump’s handling of world affairs, including Israel, where 74 percent of survey respondents said they supported his decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  

In most countries, there was no major change in favorability for America as a whole between 2018 and 2019. Ten countries did see “significant increases” in people with favorable views of the U.S. 

The Pew Research Center poll was conducted among 36,923 people in 33 countries from May 18 to Oct. 2, 2019.