New Delhi: Trust in US President Joe Biden across the world is the lowest since he assumed the presidency in 2021, a report by the Pew Research Center, published Tuesday, has found.
Confidence in Biden’s leadership has fallen across multiple countries surveyed. In 2023, 83 percent of Poles surveyed by Pew believed in Biden to do the right thing in world affairs, whereas in 2024, that number stood at 70 percent.
The survey of 40,566 adults was conducted between 5 January and 21 May of this year, across 34 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania (Australia).
Faith in Biden among Indians has fallen by 20 percentage points between 2023 and 2024, from 64 to 44 percent, according to the survey.
However, in the report published Tuesday, Pew did not itself compare between the findings of the 2023 and the 2024 surveys with regards to India.
In a statement to ThePrint, Pew said, “In India in 2023, we saw a large drop in non-response — the share of people who said they do not know or refused to respond — on questions such as confidence in world leaders or views of other countries. In 2024, non-response is higher and at levels similar to previous survey years. This is likely due to slight differences in the way the survey was administered in 2023 that resulted in lower than usual nonresponse.”
“Because of these differences, we are not making direct comparisons between the 2023 data and this year’s findings. The 2023 data is still available in the topline, but we do not include it in the trend tables in the report,” added Pew.
Indians confident of Biden, Trump
Among the world leaders surveyed in the report — Biden, former US president Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jingping and Vladimir Putin — Indians revealed they have the most confidence in Biden and Trump.
Forty-four percent of Indian respondents are confident in Biden, while 42 percent are of Trump.
About 39 percent of Indians have faith in Putin, 32 percent in Macron, and only 19 percent in Xi.
India is one of five countries out of 34 surveyed by Pew to have a two percentage point difference or less in favourable ratings between Biden and Trump.
Across the 34 countries surveyed, 43 percent of respondents are confident of Biden in relation to global affairs, while only 28 percent had the same opinion of Trump.
However, the number of Indians responding favourably to the US as a country has fallen between 2023 and 2024. In 2024, the Pew survey found that 51 percent of Indians held a favourable opinion of the US, while in 2023, the number stood at 65 percent — a 14 percentage point drop.
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Biden’s negative numbers in NATO
Among America’s NATO allies in Europe, Hungarians remain the least confident of Biden’s leadership, with 72 percent of respondents giving him a thumbs down.
In the UK and France — two of US’ historical allies in Europe — public opinion remains negative of Biden. About 56 percent and 59 percent of respondents respectively have no confidence in Biden doing the right thing in world affairs. Similarly, in Spain, Greece and Italy, a majority of the respondents did not have much faith in him either.
Nearly 9 in 10 (87 percent) Turkish citizens have no confidence in Biden, the Pew reported.
Of the 12 NATO countries surveyed, seven viewed Biden poorly. In Australia too, the third of the AUKUS (Australia, the UK and the US) countries surveyed, 59 percent of the public did not give him credence. Only 40 percent of Australians have confidence in Biden, a decrease of 14 percentage points from 2023.
On Biden handling international issues
More people on average across the 34 countries disapproved of Biden’s handling of five international issues surveyed by Pew — global economic problems, climate change, Russia-Ukraine war, China and the Israel-Hamas war.
On handling China for example, 45 percent frowned upon Biden’s Beijing policy. About 35 percent Indians, however, sanctioned his China policy while 32 percent disapproved.
A majority of people disliked Biden’s handling of the two ongoing wars and about 57 percent disapproved of his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Biden’s lowest disapproval rating on the West Asian war, however, was in India, with only 24 percent thinking wrong of his actions. Similarly, only 28 percent of Poles disapproved of his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
In the Russia-Ukraine war, Poland and India were the two countries with the lowest disapproval rating of Biden’s actions. About 23 percent of Poles and 28 percent of Indians disliked his methods of dealing with the Russia-Ukraine war.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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