President Donald Trump will head to a NATO summit this week – as a poll found that more Americans think his administration is siding with Russia over Ukraine.
A Ronald Reagan Institute survey of U.S. adults, conducted from late May to early June, showed 37 percent of respondents believe the Trump administration is favoring Russia when it comes to negotiating an end to the conflict.
Just 14 percent said the Trump White House was favoring Ukraine.
Another 36 percent said the Trump administration was taking a neutral approach – despite Ukraine being a longtime U.S. ally and Russian President Vladimir Putin launching the invasion in February 2022.
The numbers, which were released Sunday, come after Newsweek reported that the U.S. was pressuring European allies to limit references to Ukraine in the final communique of the NATO summit, which will take place Tuesday and Wednesday in The Hague, Netherlands.
A White House spokesperson wouldn’t confirm Newsweek’s reporting to the Daily Mail.
If the U.S. is successful at containing a focus on Ukraine, it would be a departure from previous NATO summits during the tenure of former President Joe Biden that showed strong support for the besieged country, which is not a NATO member.
Ahead of the summit, a senior U.S. official’s statement didn’t mention the Ukraine war – instead focusing on one of Trump’s longtime goals for NATO.
‘The president intends to secure a historic 5 percent defense spending pledge from NATO allies, which will strengthen the Alliance’s combined military capabilities and ensure greater stability in Europe and the world,’ the senior official said.
‘This effort builds on the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending increases already achieved across the Alliance since 2017 thanks to President Trump’s diplomacy in his first term,’ the source added.
The Reagan Institute Survey found that a majority of Americans still support defending a NATO ally even if they weren’t spending enough on defense.
Fifty-three percent expressed this view, while 30 percent said the U.S. should not come to that country’s defense.
A majority of Americans also opposed the U.S. pulling out of NATO – 55 percent to 33 percent – with respondents feeling more strongly about the U.S. staying in.
Breaking down the numbers, 38 percent strongly opposed the U.S. pulling out of NATO – which was formed to deter the former Soviet Union – while just 15 percent supported the U.S. withdrawing from the compact.
On several occasions, Trump has mulled pulling the U.S. out of NATO or threatened not to come to a country’s aid if they don’t pay up.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump sparked controversy by recounting a conversation with a world leader in which he suggested he might not defend a NATO country that was ‘delinquent’ in its payments. ‘I would encourage them [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,’ the then-candidate said.
Seventy-one percent of U.S. adults said they supported the U.S. defending a NATO country if there was an attack.
Just 17 percent weren’t in favor of helping a NATO ally.
A majority of Americans, 59 percent, also said they were in favor of increasing the U.S.’s military presence in Europe to counter Russian aggression.
Trump said last Saturday that Putin called him on his birthday – but their discussion mainly focused on the war between Israel and Iran, rather than Russia’s own conflict.
‘Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week,’ the president said in a Truth Social post.
That was ahead of Trump’s trip to Canada for the G7 – which he cut a day short – saying he needed to be back in Washington to tend to the war in the Middle East.
He was supposed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the day of the G7 that he missed.
‘Finally, President Trump intends to hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders, which will focus on issues of shared concern and reaffirm the United States strong ties with our allies and partners,’ the senior official said Friday, not articulating who the president was sitting down with yet.
It was unclear as of Friday if Zelensky still planned to travel to the Hague for the NATO Summit after Trump skipped their G7 meeting.
