Trump’s favorability stands at 23% across 36 countries, 22% in South Korea

[Financial News] A public opinion survey found that U.S. President Donald Trump’s favorability abroad was 23% after more than half of his second term. In South Korea, it was 22%.
The Pew Research Center announced the results on its website on the 23rd (local time). The survey was conducted from Feb. 8 to May 13 in 36 countries outside the U.S., including South Korea, Japan, Germany and Mexico, with a total of 42,151 respondents.
When asked whether they believed Trump could make the right decisions on international affairs, 76% gave a positive answer based on the median across the 36 countries. The share who said no was 26%.
By country, the Philippines recorded the highest level of trust at 68%, followed by Israel at 66%, Nigeria at 65%, Kenya at 63% and Ghana at 54%. The lowest level was in Palestine, excluding the Gaza Strip, at just 4%. It was followed by Türkiye at 6%, Sweden at 11% and Mexico at 11%. In South Korea, 22% said they trusted Trump, while 77% said they did not. In Japan, 25% said they trusted him and 74% said they did not.
Trump’s favorability fell in 16 of the 24 countries where year-on-year comparisons were possible, and no country recorded an increase. His favorability was lower than that of French President Emmanuel Macron at 43% and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at 35%, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping at 34% and Russian President Vladimir Putin at 31%. The only leader with a lower rating than Trump was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 18%.
The survey also asked whether respondents trusted the U.S., rather than Trump, as an international partner. Based on the median across 36 countries, 47% said they trusted the U.S., while 50% said they did not. In South Korea, 57% said they trusted the U.S. and 43% said they did not. In a 2022 survey, 83% of South Koreans said they trusted the U.S., meaning the figure fell by 26 percentage points in three years.
Over the same period, the share in Canada that viewed the U.S. as a trustworthy partner plunged from 83% to 35% this year. Trust in the U.S. also fell by more than 40 percentage points in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, and by more than 30 points in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain. In Japan, the share saying the U.S. was a trustworthy country fell from 76% in 2022 to 59% this year.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement on the survey, "During the four years of the Joe Biden administration, America grew weaker, but Trump restored America’s strength at home and abroad."
pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter