By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than half of Americans, including one in four Republicans, think President Donald Trump is “too closely aligned” with Russia, as he radically realigns U.S. foreign policy, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.
The two-day poll completed on Wednesday also found little appetite among Americans for Trump’s expansionist agenda, as the Republican president talks of acquiring Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.
Some 56% of respondents, including 89% of Democrats and 27% of Republicans, agreed with a statement that Trump was too close to Moscow. Overall, 40% of respondents disagreed with that statement and 4% did not answer the question.
Trump has turned American foreign policy on its head since starting his second term as U.S. president in January, including berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a televised meeting as uncommitted to peace with Russia, America’s Cold War foe.
His administration has since proposed a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia that the Kremlin has responded to coolly.
America’s pivot on Russia, under a president who has in the past expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has jolted U.S. allies, fueling discussion in Europe over where U.S. allies there need to plan their own defenses without counting on help from the United States.
Trump has argued that his stance is necessary to bring an end to the war, which he pledged during last year’s presidential election campaign to accomplish on his first day in office. The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed many Americans back a key plank to his more transactional approach to aiding Ukraine.
Nearly half – or 44% – of respondents in the poll said they support Trump’s plan of “conditioning U.S. military support for Ukraine on the U.S. getting a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.” Two-thirds of Republicans backed the idea, as did one in five Democrats.
Overall, Trump’s approval rating has held steady for the past few weeks at 44% — higher than either he or Democratic President Joe Biden enjoyed over most of their last terms in office.
LITTLE APPETITE FOR EXPANSION
The poll showed that Americans had little interest in Trump’s stated goals of expanding U.S. territory, as he eyes Greenland, talks of making Canada the 51st state, discusses retaking control of the Panama Canal and floats leveling and redeveloping Gaza — potentially displacing the 2.1 million Palestinians living there.
Asked which of a list of issues Trump should prioritize, just 1% of respondents picked expanding U.S. territory, compared to 61% who picked fighting inflation and 13% who said he should focus on shrinking the size of the federal government.
Just 17% of respondents, including 26% of Republicans, supported Trump’s goal of absorbing Canada. Some 21% of respondents, including 34% of Republicans, supported the idea of taking over Gaza to bring peace to the Middle East.
Many experts have deemed Trump’s Gaza proposal unworkable, and human rights groups have said it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Trump has somewhat stronger backing on his goals of taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal. Sixty-five percent of Republicans in the Reuters/Ipsos survey said they agreed with a statement that “the U.S. should take control of the Panama Canal to protect its economy.” Some 89% of Democrats disagreed.
Some 45% of Republicans agreed with a statement that the U.S. should “take control of Greenland so the U.S. military can better guard the country,” while 88% of Democrats disagreed.
Denmark has said Greenland, a self-governing part of its kingdom, is not for sale but Trump has suggested he would impose tariffs if it resists his efforts to acquire the island. Trump has called strategically located Greenland vital to U.S. national security.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, surveyed 1,422 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)
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