US President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are “overwhelmingly low” globally, with 76 per cent expressing no confidence in his leadership, according to a new survey by Pew Research Centre. | Photo Credit: REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

US President Donald Trump's approval ratings are “overwhelmingly low” globally, with 76 per cent expressing no confidence in his leadership, according to a new survey by Pew Research Centre.

The findings of the survey, released on Tuesday, showed that only 23 per cent of respondents trust Trump’s leadership to handle world affairs, while confidence in him declined in 16 of 24 countries and improved in none.

As many as 42,151 people across 36 countries participated in the survey conducted between February 8 to May 13, 2026.

In India, 39 per cent of respondents expressed confidence in Trump’s leadership, as against 36 per cent who had no confidence. Last year, 51 per cent respondents from India had expressed confidence in Trump’s leadership.

The majority of Indians – 51 per cent – who participated in the survey expressed confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s abilities to steer world affairs.

In Israel, 81 per cent of respondents have a positive view of the US, and 66 per cent of respondents said they have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs.

The Trump administration's tariff policy was among the most unpopular, with 18 per cent approving of it, while 32 per cent of respondents found the US immigration policy favourable.

The Trump administration’s tariff policies are widely unpopular, with 27 per cent approval in the UK, Canada (17 per cent), Japan (15 per cent), South Korea (14 per cent), Mexico (11 per cent), and Germany (8 per cent).

Kenya was the only country surveyed in which a majority (55 per cent) approve of how Trump is handling the issue of tariffs.

Across the 36 nations polled, a median of 32 per cent of adults think the US takes into account the interests of countries like theirs a great deal or a fair amount in its foreign policy decisions.

In three European countries – France, Germany and Greece – confidence ratings for Trump are among the lowest, often tied with Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or both.

For instance, 16 per cent of Germans have confidence in Trump and a similar number say the same about Putin (15 per cent) and Netanyahu (15 per cent), a sharp contrast to the 72 per cent of Germans who have confidence in French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump tends to receive particularly low marks relative to other leaders in the Muslim-majority publics surveyed. Among Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, for example, only four per cent have confidence in Trump – similar to the two per cent who say the same of Netanyahu, but much lower than the roughly four-in-ten who have confidence in Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping.

Published on June 25, 2026