Gallup poll measuring opinion in 133 countries and areas in 2018 found 31% approved of US leadership and 30% for Russia

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Global confidence in US leadership is so low that the country is now in a virtual tie with Russia for worldwide approval.

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A new Gallup poll measuring opinion in 133 countries and areas in 2018 found the US and Russia neck and neck, with 31% saying they approve of the leadership of the US, and 30% approval for Russia.

It’s the first time the countries have been close to equal footing.

American approval ratings plunged in 2017, Donald Trump’s first year in office, to 30% from 48% the year before, and then stayed relatively flat last year, according to the poll. Russia, meanwhile, saw its approval rating inch up from 27% in 2017 to 30% in 2018.

China, meanwhile, beat both, with a 34% approval rating for its leadership skills, and Germany led the pack at 39%.

“The image of US leadership abroad is not good right now. Its approval rating is stuck at an all-time low for any of the past three presidential administrations,” wrote Gallup’s global managing partner, Jon Clifton. “President Donald Trump’s America First foreign policy wasn’t designed to win friends around the globe.”

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The disapproval rating for US leadership, at 40%, was down slightly from 2017 but still the highest of the four countries polled. Russia had a 31% disapproval rating.

The poor US ratings come as Trump has continued to attack the country’s allies and pull out of global agreements.

The US image fared worst in Europe, where 24% approved of the country’s leadership. In the UK, it was 26%, and dropped seven points from 2017. The US had the strongest image in Africa, where a 52% majority still approved of its leadership.

Russia’s rise in the poll may be hard to explain, in a tumultuous year in which Britain accused Moscow of sending two assassins to poison a former Russian intelligence officer with a Soviet-era nerve agent, and a standoff continued between the Kremlin and west over Syria, Ukraine and much else.

Russia’s image made particular gains in countries such as Turkey and Iran, the poll shows.

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Neli Esipova, Gallup’s regional research director for eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, said that while the data does not offer reasons for respondents’ ratings, she has often heard the sentiment from people around the world that they appreciate a nation willing to stand up to the increasingly unpopular US.

“Even if people don’t approve of Putin, there is some admiration of Russia – admiration may be a strong word – but many people have gained respect for Russia for the fact that they try to stand up against the US and the west,” she said. “It does not mean they love Putin’s policies.”

The poll was based on interviews with about 1,000 people in each of the countries surveyed from March through December 2018.

“While not yet a clear success or failure, Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy so far has not achieved the pillars of the administration’s initial security strategy – advancing American influence,” Gallup says in its report. “Instead, the administration’s transactional approach appears to have allowed the main challengers to US influence, values and wealth – China and Russia – to gain ground.”