World feels less secure with Trump – poll
The world feels less secure with Donald Trump as US president, a recent poll says, adding that the majority of respondents in Germany, France, the UK and Brazil said they feel less safe since the Republican took office.
The poll was conducted by TNS Global, one of the largest research agencies worldwide, for Sputnik International news agency between February 16 and 22, 2017.
A total of 7,148 people across seven countries – France (1,004 people aged 16-64), Germany (1,014 people aged 16-64), Italy (1,050 people aged 16-54), Great Britain (1,037 people aged 16-64), the United States (1,027 people aged 18-64), Brazil (1,010 people aged 16-54) and Turkey (1,006 people aged 16-54) took part in the survey.
#SputnikPolls: Most #Europeans expect world to become less safe with @realDonaldTrump as US President https://t.co/CvTIxdV0HQpic.twitter.com/BoZ9lKZidv
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) April 11, 2017
The respondents were asked one question: “Will the world be more or less secure with President Trump?”
Germany has the highest percentage of people – 72 percent – who doubt that the world will be secure with Trump. It’s followed by France (64 percent), Brazil (60 percent) and the UK (55 percent).
In the US, 45 percent said they feel “less secure” with Trump as president, while only 28 percent say they feel protected with him in power.
It’s been more than 80 days since Trump was sworn in as the 45th US president, with many of his decisions sparking controversy. In January, his executive order temporarily banning the citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US caused outrage around the globe. Later, Trump revised the order and one of the banned countries, Iraq, was exempted from the list.
Following his inauguration, Trump also signed an executive order authorizing construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border to control immigration, saying afterwards that Mexico will pay for the construction costs “one way or another.”
READ MORE: US govt agency to award contracts for construction of US-Mexico wall by mid-April
The first months of the Trump administration were also marked with numerous scandals after the mainstream press claimed that members of the president’s camp had numerous connections with Russian officials. In February, Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, stepped down after a scandal erupted involving his phone conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
The most-discussed of Trump’s moves so far, however, was his decision to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat airbase controlled by the Syrian Army on April 7. Washington claimed the strike was in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province, for which the US blamed the Syrian government. Syrian officials said that the strike killed at least six people, including civilians, and wounded several others.
