Despite President Donald Trump focusing his administration’s policy around the “America First” platform, a new poll now indicates that most Americans disagree with the sentiment.
According to the latest Pew poll, 55 percent of Americans believe “the U.S. should take into account the interests of its allies in foreign policy, even if it means making compromises with them.” On the opposite side, 38 percent believe otherwise, that the United States should follow its own national interests, “even when its allies strongly disagree.”
Newsweek writes that the poll’s findings come amid new U.S. sanctions on both European allies and China and a statement by the President that American sovereignty will never be surrendered “to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy.”
“America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” President Trump said during a United Nations speech last week, adding that “America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination.”
As a result of “America First” motivated moves, China and the U.S. have been stuck in a tit-for-tat trade war, with Beijing responding to tariffs with retaliatory duties of its own. European leaders, on their part, have publicly decried President Trump’s policies and called his claims that the EU was America’s “foe” false.
The survey further found that a slight majority of adults, 51 percent, in the U.S. do believe that other countries treat America unfairly while 42 percent say that “other countries treat the U.S. about as fairly as we treat them.” Compared to two decades ago, these numbers differ greatly. Back in the 1990s, 70 percent of Americans said they believed that other countries were taking advantage of the U.S.
“These changes are largely attributable to a shift in views among Democrats and Democratic leaners,” said Pew. “In 1999, about two-thirds of Democrats (68 percent) said other countries often take unfair advantage of the U.S.; just 28 percent say that today.”
The national survey was carried out by the Pew Research Center between September 18 and 24 among 1,754 adults, including 1,439 registered voters.
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