More than half of Americans, including one in four republicans, thinks President Donald Trump is “very aligned” to Russia by radically reorganizing US foreign policy, shows a new Reuters/Ipsos research.
The two-day survey completed on Wednesday (12) also found little interest among the Americans for Trump’s expansionist agenda, while the Republican president speaks of acquiring Greenland, Canada and Panama.
About 56% of respondents, including 89% of Democrats and 27% of Republicans, agreed with a statement stating that Trump was very close to Moscow. Overall, 40% of respondents disagreed with this statement and 4% did not respond.
Trump has radically changed US foreign policy since he began his second term as a US president in January, including reprimanding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a televised meeting, allegedly not committed to peace with Russia, ancient US enemy in the Cold War.
Since then, the Trump government has proposed a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, but Kremlin has reacted coldly.
The US change in relation to Russia, under a president who in the past expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, shook the European allies. The shift fueled discussions in Europe about planning their own defenses, not to mention the help of the US.
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Trump argued that his posture is necessary to end the war, which he promised during last year’s election campaign to perform on his first day.
Reuters/ipsos research has also shown that many Americans support a key point of their approach to help Ukraine. Almost half – or 44% – of the respondents said they support Trump’s plan to “condition US military support to Ukraine to obtain a portion of Ukraine mineral wealth throughout the US.” Two thirds of the Republicans supported the idea, as well as one in five democrats.
Overall, Trump’s approval rate has remained stable in recent weeks at 44% – higher than he or president Joe Biden had most of his last terms.
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Little appetite for expansion
The survey also showed that Americans had little interest in Trump’s declared goals to expand US territory. The president is keeping an eye on Greenland, speaks of making Canada the 51st state of the country, discusses the resumption of control of the Panama Canal and proposes to level and rebuild Gaza – potentially shifting the 2.1 million Palestinians living in the region.
Asked what issues of a Trump list should prioritize, only 1% of respondents chose the expansion of US territory, compared to 61% who chose the fight against inflation and 13% who said they should focus on reducing the size of the federal government.
Only 17% of respondents, including 26% of Republicans, supported Trump’s goal to absorb Canada. About 21% of respondents, including 34% of Republicans, supported the idea of taking Gaza to bring peace to the Middle East.
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Many experts considered Trump’s proposal for impracticable Gaza, and human rights groups said this would be equivalent to ethnic cleaning.
Trump has a slightly stronger support in his goals to take control of Greenland and Panama Canal. Sixty -five percent of Republicans in the Reuters/Ipsos research said they agreed with the statement that “the US should take control of the Panama channel to protect its economy.” About 89% of Democrats disagreed.
About 45% of Republicans agreed with the statement that the US should “take control of Greenland so that US military could better protect the country,” while 88% of Democrats disagreed.
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Denmark said Greenland, an autonomous part of its kingdom, is not for sale, but Trump suggested that it would impose tariffs if it resisted efforts to acquire the island. Trump called Greenland strategically located from Vital to US National Security.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted online and across the country, interviewed 1,422 US adults and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
