---
title: "European views of Trump and the U.S. are especially negative"
description: "Views of the U.S. and its president are negative across the globe, but Europeans stand out for their especially unfavorable views."
date: "2026-06-23"
authors:
  - name: "Richard Wike"
    job_title: "Director, Global Attitudes Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/richard-wike/"
  - name: "Laura Silver"
    job_title: "Associate Director, Global Attitudes Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/laura-silver/"
  - name: "Moira Fagan"
    job_title: "Research Associate"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/moira-fagan/"
  - name: "Jonathan Schulman"
    job_title: "Research Associate"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jonathan-schulman/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/european-views-of-trump-and-the-u-s-are-especially-negative/"
categories:
  - "Global Image of Countries"
  - "U.S. Global Image"
---

# European views of Trump and the U.S. are especially negative

**About this research**

This Pew Research Center report looks at views of the U.S., U.S. President Donald Trump, and opinion of the role the U.S. is playing in the world.

**Why did we do this?**

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. We have [studied global views](https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/international-affairs/global-image-of-countries/us-global-image/) of the United States for more than two decades. We did this study to understand how people in other countries view the U.S. and Trump, now in the second year of his second administration.

[Learn more about Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/about/) and our [international surveys](https://www.pewresearch.org/international-surveys/).

**How did we do this?**

We surveyed 42,151 people across 36 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the U.K., and the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Interviews were conducted from February 8 to May 13, 2026. We designed the surveys so we could talk about the views of the adult population in each country. Here are the [survey questions used](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.23_us-image-2026_topline.pdf) for this report, along with responses, and the [survey methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/methodology-us-image-2026/).

Attitudes toward the United States and President Donald Trump are negative in regions across the globe. However, Europeans stand out for especially unfavorable views.

[![A bar chart showing Low confidence in Trump across Europe](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.22_us-image-2026_3_01.png?w=310){.alignright width=280}](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=319916)

These findings come from a new Pew Research Center survey of 42,151 adults in 36 countries, conducted Feb. 8-May 13, 2026. They are [part of a larger report](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/trump-gets-negative-reviews-internationally-as-fewer-say-u-s-is-a-reliable-partner/) focused on views of the U.S. and its president.

**Few Europeans have confidence in Trump. **Majorities in all 10 European nations polled say they lack confidence in him to do the right thing regarding world affairs – and in eight of these countries, roughly three-quarters of the public or more express this view.

Trump’s confidence ratings are down significantly in eight European nations since 2025, including drops of 15 percentage points in Greece and Italy.

#### What is a median?

In this analysis, median scores are used to help readers see overall patterns in the data. The median percentage is the middle number in a list of all percentages sorted from highest to lowest.

As in previous surveys, Trump is more popular among people with favorable views of right-wing populist parties. **However, confidence in Trump is down significantly among right-wing populists in several nations.**

[![A set of line charts showing that Fewer right-wing populist party supporters have confidence in Trump than in 2025](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.22_us-image-2026_3_02.png?w=420){.alignright width=280}](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=319920)

*For more on how we classify populist parties, refer to [Appendix B](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/appendix-b-classifying-european-political-parties-us-image-2026/).*

For example, 49% of Italians with a positive view of Brothers of Italy had confidence in Trump in 2025, compared with 30% this year.

**Most disapprove of how Trump is handling major issues, especially Greenland and tariffs.** A median of 85% across the 10 nations disapprove of how he is dealing with these two issues. Trump receives poor reviews on other issues as well, including the conflict in Gaza, the Russia-Ukraine war and Iran.

[![A bar chart showing that Europeans lack confidence in Trump on international issues](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.22_us-image-2026_3_03.png?w=310){.alignright width=280}](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=319919)

**Overall ratings for the U.S. have also declined over the past year** in six of the 10 European nations we surveyed. Hungary is the only country where a majority of people (58%) now express a favorable opinion of the U.S. Swedes give the U.S. its lowest marks (19%).

**The U.S. is no longer seen as reliable in many European nations. **Hungary and Poland are the only countries where a majority say the U.S. is a reliable partner – with Hungarians actually more likely to hold this view now than when we last asked in 2022, during the Biden administration. However, in eight other nations, the share who think the U.S. is reliable has fallen by anywhere from 28 to 52 percentage points.

[![A table showing Large decreases in the shares who see the U.S. as a reliable partner in Europe](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.22_us-image-2026_3_04.png?w=310){.aligncenter width=400}](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=319918)

Similarly, **Europeans have become less likely to think the U.S. considers other countries’ interests** when making foreign policy. In nine nations, the share who say the U.S. considers the interests of countries like theirs has declined significantly since 2023.

[![A line chart showing that Fewer Europeans in several countries say the U.S. takes their interests into account](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/pg_2026.06.22_us-image-2026_3_05.png?w=420){.aligncenter width=400}](https://www.pewresearch.org/?attachment_id=319917)

In countries where we’ve asked this question many times over the years, attitudes resemble what we found in the early and mid-2000s, another period of trans-Atlantic tensions resulting from a war in the Middle East and other issues.

---

**Next:** [In middle-income nations, most say the U.S. interferes in other countries’ affairs](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/in-middle-income-nations-most-say-the-u-s-interferes-in-other-countries-affairs.md)