World trusts Putin, Xi and Merkel more than Trump, major survey finds

German chancellor considered twice as trustworthy as US president, poll shows

Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating among the leaders of five major world economies, including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel, according to new research.

A survey by the Pew Research Centre which polled respondents from 25 countries found a median of 70 per cent had a lack of confidence in Mr Trump when asked whether they thought he would “do the right thing regarding world affairs”.

Mr Putin was also regarded negatively by 62 per cent, and Mr Xi by 56 per cent.

More people trust French president Mr Macron, with 46 per cent saying they had confidence in him to “do the right thing”, and even more, 52 per cent, trust Angela Merkel.

“European attitudes towards Trump are strikingly negative, especially when compared with the ratings his predecessor received while in office,” the researchers said.

One small exception to this rule is among British respondents, 28 per cent of whom expressed confidence in Mr Trump, compared to 10 per cent of Germans, 9 per cent of French people and 7 per cent among Spanish respondents.

For the UK, it still represents a huge collapse in confidence following the Obama era. Two years into his first term in office, a total of 84 per cent of Brits said they had confidence in the US president. At the end of his presidential term, the figure was 79 per cent.


 Angela Merkel is seen as a more trustworthy leader than her US counterpart 
 (EPA)

The researchers note that the US president receives higher ratings from supporters of right-wing populist parties in Europe.

They say: “Among people in the UK who have a favourable view of Ukip, 53 per cent express confidence in Trump, compared with only 21 per cent among those with an unfavourable view of Ukip. Similar divides exist among supporters and detractors of right-wing populist parties in Sweden, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.”

Despite Mr Trump’s lack of popularity, most still have a fairly high opinion of the country which elected him.

Respondents were asked about whether they would prefer the US or China to be the top global power.

The question asked: “Thinking about the future, if you had to choose, which of the following scenarios would be better for the world: the US is the world’s leading power or China is the world’s leading power?” Results show the US is overwhelmingly the top choice.

The most pro-US country (or most anti-Chinese) was Japan, where 81 per cent of respondents said it would be better to have the US as the leading superpower.

But Argentina, Russia and Tunisia all named China as a preferable future world superpower.