Trump polls worse than Zelensky in embarrassing blow after 'dictator' rant
New polls from the United States show Donald Trump's approval rating over his handling of Ukraine is just 40% - and that poll was conducted before his latest rants against Volodymyr Zelensky
New polls from the United States show Donald Trump's approval rating over his handling of Ukraine is just 40% - and that poll was conducted before his latest rants against Volodymyr ZelenskyVolodymyr Zelensky has a higher approval rating than Donald Trump (
Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump claims that Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dictator” without support in Ukraine and yet polls show the US president actually has a lower approval rating.
The US president has lashed out at the Ukrainian leader in recent days with wild claims that his country started the war with Russia. And he suggested Ukraine didn’t deserve a seat at the table for peace negotiations as they haven’t achieved it in the past three years.
And while Zelensky has been widely commended for his role in leading his country against the onslaught from Russia, Trump alleged that Ukrainians are not backing him. “The leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating,” said Trump.
But Zelensky “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57% - according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Speaking in Kyiv, Zelensky said the number given by Trump, for which the president cited no sources, was “disinformation” that originated in Russia, and that the president “unfortunately lives in this disinformation space”.
Trump has called Zelensky a 'dictator' (
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Zelensky said he will ask pollsters in the coming weeks to conduct surveys on the public’s trust in him and share the results with the Trump administration. He was elected to a five-year term in 2019, and the next presidential elections had been scheduled for spring 2024.
But Ukrainian law prohibits parliamentary or presidential elections during a state of martial law, so Zelensky has remained in office. He has said he believes elections will be held in Ukraine after martial law is lifted. The country would need to amend the law if it decided to hold a vote.
It comes as a Gallup poll on Wednesday showed Trump has an overall job rating of 45% compared to Zelensky’s 57%. The poll was taken less than a month into his second term in office and before his latest declarations against Zelensky.
Breaking down the poll into categories, his approval rating for foreign affairs is 44% and his handling of Ukraine lies at just 40% approval. While many Western politicians have been left aghast at Trump’s comments on Ukraine, even members of his own Republican party have said they were a mistake.
“Putin started this war. Putin committed war crimes. Putin is the dictator who murdered his opponents. The EU nations have contributed more to Ukraine. Zelensky polls over 50%,” said Republican Congressman Don Bacon. “Ukraine wants to be part of the West, Putin hates the West. I don’t accept George Orwell’s doublethink.”
Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw believes Trump's comments were just part of a play to get Putin to the table. He told Piers Morgan Uncensored: "It’s not great, to put a nicer spin on it, Trump tends to talk that way to his friends. He tends to talk nicer to his enemies. So, if he’s talking to you that way it still means you are his friend.
"And I would always of course warn people like Zelensky, ‘Don’t get into it with Donald Trump, don’t get into it’. What’s the point? We’ve been backing you the whole time, we will continue to back you, but there must be a paradigm shift… That’s what they are attempting to do."