More than half of Americans lack faith in Trump on Russia-Ukraine war, poll finds

A majority of Americans don’t have faith in President Donald Trump’s decision-making ability related to the Russia-Ukraine war ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a poll released Thursday.

Nearly 60 percent of people said in a Pew Research Center poll they are either “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that Trump can make “wise decisions” about the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Democrats expressed significantly less confidence in the president’s decision-making skills than Republicans in the poll taken in early August. But Trump has also lost trust with Republicans, with 73 percent telling Pew they are somewhat or very confident in Trump’s ability to handle the war, compared to 81 percent in July 2024.

The White House has attempted to temper expectations ahead of the Friday summit in Alaska, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt referring to the meeting as a “listening exercise.” Still, Trump has said he expects Putin to take the meeting seriously, threatening “very severe consequences” for Moscow if the Russian leader doesn’t agree to take steps to end the war.

Trump spoke with European leaders — including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — on Wednesday, telling them that Ukraine would be a part of any discussions about possible territorial concessions after he previously suggested that any truce would include “land swapping.”

Americans are evenly split on whether the U.S. has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself in the war, with Democrats far more likely to express support for U.S. assistance for Ukraine. But less than 1-in-3 Americans see the war as a major threat to U.S. interests, a sharp drop from 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor country.

Americans are less likely now than they were in March to say Trump is favoring Russia too much in the war, though. The change comes as Trump has shifted his public positioning on the war in recent months, striking an increasingly critical tone.

The poll was conducted online and by telephone Aug. 4-10, with a random sample of 3,554 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.