US President Donald Trump receives positive ratings from only about a third of supporters of the parties the US president wants to bring to power in France and Germany, according to a poll by the publication "Politico" and the sociological agency "Public First" (Public First), writes BTA.
The leader of the MAGA movement (Make America Great Again, translated as "Let's make America great again") is not popular in Europe, even among supporters of right-wing political parties that he sees as allies, according to the results of a public opinion poll conducted earlier this month among 10,000 people in five European countries.
Trump's biggest fans are in Britain, where 50% of respondents affiliated with the "Reform UK" party have positive views of the Republican president. In France and Germany, however, only a third of right-wing party supporters surveyed say they see Trump in a positive light.
The poll was conducted after the Trump administration presented a new US national security plan aimed at cultivating the "growing influence of European patriotic parties". Such parties are gaining support in France, Germany and the UK.
The US president is even more unpopular among the general public. In France and Germany, two-thirds of those surveyed have a negative opinion of him. In the UK, 55% of respondents expressed a negative opinion - 5% more than in the US, where 50% gave Trump a negative assessment. He is the least popular in Canada, where 72% of respondents give the US leader a negative assessment.
Supporters of the "patriotic" right-wing populist parties, which the US government mentions in its security strategy, support the US president much more than supporters of other political forces. However, support for Trump is not categorical even among right-wing respondents.
Voters of the French "National Rally" party give its leader Marine Le Pen a high rating. But when it comes to the US president, the proportion of "National Rally" voters who express a negative opinion of Trump is higher than those who have a positive attitude towards him - 38% to 30%.
The majority of "Alternative for Germany" supporters approve of the party's leader Alice Weidel, but are divided on Trump, with 34% of respondents expressing a positive attitude towards him and 33% having a negative attitude.
The results highlight the challenges facing "National Rally". The French far-right party is trying to win wider support ahead of local elections scheduled for next year and a key presidential election in 2027.
"National Rally" became the third largest political force in the 2024 parliamentary elections, but won the most seats as an independent party in the National Assembly (the lower house of parliament) and is currently in first place in the polls with a large lead over other parties.
The leaders of the French far-right formation were quick to reject the White House's efforts to support right-wing forces in Europe. The president of the "National Assembly" Jordan Bardella told the British newspaper "Telegraph" that he rejected the "vassalage" to a "big brother like Trump", and Thierry Mariani, a member of the party's national council, told "Politico": "Trump treats us like a colony – with its rhetoric, which is not of great importance, but especially strong in economic and political terms".
The UK is an exception, however, with 79% of "Reform UK" supporters expressing a positive opinion of their leader Nigel Farage, while their support for Trump stands at 50%.