American Public Support for Ukraine Grows

Last Friday, I wrote that President Donald Trump’s poll numbers were falling. That was the case especially with assessments of his handling of specific policy issues. The more the public sees of Trump’s policies in practice, the less they seem to like them.

Today, Gallup is out with a new poll on Ukraine that shows the same trend. When asked if “the United States is doing too much to help Ukraine, not enough, or the right amount,” 46 percent of survey respondents said the United States is not doing enough. That is up sixteen percentage points from December, and it is the highest support for doing more in Ukraine that Gallup has recorded since the war started.

 Gallup conducted the poll after last month’s acrimonious White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That clash may have influenced how people answered Gallup’s questions, though it is impossible to say conclusively in what direction.

The poll results also show that public support for helping Ukraine reclaim territory it has lost to Russia in the fighting has ticked up by five points since last December. Then, 50 percent of Americans said they wanted a quick end to the fighting, and 48 percent favored continued support for Ukraine even it prolonged the war. Today’s poll shows that 45 percent back a quick end to the war and 55 favor pressing ahead with the fighting.

Gallup speculated that these numbers “may pressure the Trump administration to recalibrate its Ukraine policy.” Perhaps. But the White House might not be feeling the level of political pressure that Gallup’s topline numbers suggest. The surge in support for doing more to help Ukraine was driven by changes in the views of Democrats (up thirty-one percentage points), and to a lesser extent, Independents (up fourteen points). In contrast, more than eight out of ten Republicans continue to believe that the United States is either providing the right amount of support to Ukraine (31 percent) or too much (56 percent).

Those polling numbers are not likely to embolden congressional Republicans skeptical of Trump’s approach to Ukraine to press him to change course. At the same time, Trump will see Republican support as vindicating his belief that the U.S. national interest is best served by ending the war in Ukraine quickly, even if it potentially means recognizing Russian claims to the territory it has taken. Indeed, with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a partial ceasefire after their phone call today, further negotiations could move so fast that the American public could be presented with a fait accompli.

Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this post.