U.S. President Donald Trump is seen as a stronger and more decisive leader than the heads of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany by their own citizens, a poll has found
The muscular stance that the second Trump administration has taken towards Europe on defence, trade, and Western liberties has seemingly elevated the American leader in the eyes of Europeans, many of whom now view President Trump as having a greater impact on their countries than their own leaders.
According to a survey conducted by the UK-based Public First polling firm on behalf of POLITICO, British, French and German citizens all rate the U.S. president as more “strong and decisive” than their own leadership by a significant margin.
The poll found that 74 per cent of Germans rated Trump as stronger than Chancellor Friedrich Merz, compared to 26 per cent who viewed him as stronger than Trump. Meanwhile, the American leader bested President Emmanuel Macron by a margin of 73 per cent to 27 per cent among French citizens, and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also trailed Trump by 69 to 31 per cent among British citizens.
The perception of how their respective leaders have fared so far in dealing with President Trump was similarly grim among Europeans. Among those polled in Germany, just 24 per cent said that Chancellor Merz has done a good job, compared to 34 per cent who rated his performance poorly.
The picture was even more stark for Macron, with a mere 16 per cent of his compatriots viewing his handling of Trump as positive compared to 39 per cent who were displeased with his stance towards Washington.
Despite his brazen attempts to cosy up to President Trump and his successful negotiation of preferential trade terms compared to his European counterparts, Prime Minister Starmer only slightly outperformed Merz, with UK opinion on his relations with Trump evenly split at 29 per cent positive and 29 per cent negative.
However, it does not appear that there is a clear direction voters across the pond want in terms of how to handle President Trump. According to POLITICO, the survey found that while most want Europe, in general, to take a stronger approach towards the White House, they want their individual leaders to be more conciliatory towards Trump.
The results of the survey may serve to bolster President Trump’s claim this week that the leadership in Europe is “weak”, arguing that they “want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak.”
After having successfully pressured European nations to increase their NATO defence spending budgets — a long-term aim of President Trump — as well as having significantly rebalanced trade between the EU and the United States in favour of American producers, the White House has increasingly begun to pressure Europeans to roll back censorship rules and to reverse their open borders migration policies.
Earlier this month, the U.S. administration released its National Security Strategy memo, which broadly outlined the American government’s foreign policy goals. The document was noticeably scathing towards European allies, warning that the current trends of mass migration, attacks on free speech, and green-based economic policies could result in “civilizational erasure”.
Hinting that President Trump will seek to continue bending European politics to his will, the strategy memo suggested that his team will look to bolster “patriotic” parties in Europe that would implement more Trumpian-style immigration agendas. A populist takeover of Europe appears to be increasingly likely, with MAGA-style parties currently leading in the polls in Britain, France, and Germany.
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