Most people disagree on Trump's US world vision

China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-29 07:28

WASHINGTON - A majority of citizens in the United States disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling US foreign policy and about half think the country's global standing will deteriorate during the next year, according to a new poll that highlighted the nation's partisan divide on foreign issues.

The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also found the public split about the president's plan to remove US troops from Syria and possibly Afghanistan - and about a quarter don't have an opinion one way or the other.

Overall, the president receives low marks from the public for his job handling foreign policy - 35 percent approve, while 63 percent disapprove. Like other issues, the partisan divide is startling. While 76 percent of Republicans approve, just 8 percent of Democrats say the same.

"I just think that any time you buddy up with Russia or North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea), it's going to be bad business," said Samantha Flowers, a 30-year-old third-grade teacher from Columbia, Missouri.

Richard Cleaveland, a 65-year-old truck driver from Ogden, Utah, disagrees and wholeheartedly backs Trump and his foreign policy.

"I think he's doing a good job with North Korea. He's done better than anybody else has ever done. Nobody else has even got it this far with North Korea," he said referring to Trump's meeting in June in Singapore with DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un.

Turning to US involvement in foreign wars, the poll showed 39 percent of US people approve of pulling the 2,000 US troops from Syria, and 35 percent say they disapprove. The president's decision is supported by 56 percent of Republicans and 26 percent of Democrats.

"I think it's time for our troops to come home - Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria," said Cleaveland, who was interviewed on speaker phone as he drove his semi-trailer truck through western Kansas. "I lost a lot of good friends when I was in Vietnam. I think that was a stupid war too."

The nation's partisan divide is evident when it comes to the US public's views of the US role in the world, its global standing and its relationships with other nations.

Forty-three percent of Democrats think the US should be more active, compared with 23 percent who think it should be less active; another 32 percent of Democrats say the nation's current role is about right.

Republicans see it differently. Four in 10 Republicans say the US should be less active in solving the world's problems, while 46 percent think the current role in world affairs is right. Just 13 percent of Republicans think the US role abroad should be more active.

Associated Press