Over 60% of US voters say Russia is enemy – poll
Russia ranks fourth on the American public’s list of bad guys, outstripped only by North Korea, Iran, and Syria, according to a new Fox News poll. However, most think President Trump sees Russia as a friend rather than a foe.
The latest Fox News national poll didn’t give American voters a wide range of options, asking respondents to mark a list of countries they view either as an ally or as an enemy.
North Korea ended up as enemy number one, with 93 percent of respondents blacklisting it. Iran (80 percent) and Syria (76 percent) rounded out the top three bad boys.
Some 64 percent of Americans said they consider Russia an enemy, rather than an ally, which is up 24 points from 2013, when 47 percent viewed it as a friend and 40 percent as a foe.
When asked how they thought “President Trump views the US relationship with Russia,” 73 percent replied that the president sees the nation as an ally, while 20 percent said they think the new Republican president considers it an adversary.
The picture was different among Trump voters, however, with 39 percent saying Russia is a friend, and 59 percent assuming that Trump thinks so.
The poll found American voters consider their top three best friends in Europe to be the UK (95 percent), France (92 percent), and Germany (87 percent).
The Fox News poll, which was conducted from May 21 to 23, is said to be based on “landline and cellphone interviews with some 1,011 randomly chosen registered voters.”
Meanwhile, a recent Pew Research Center poll has shown that most Europeans believe the US would come to the aid of its European NATO allies if war broke out with Russia, despite Trump’s criticism of the military alliance.
On average, 66 percent of the citizens in seven major NATO member states said that Washington “would use military force” against Russia to defend a NATO ally in the event of a “serious military conflict,” a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center between February and early April of 2017 found.
About 70 percent in Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada believe the US is ready to intervene militarily should there be conflict with Russia, while between 60 and 66 percent of people in France, the UK, and Germany do. This remained unchanged throughout the first quarter of 2017, despite Trump’s sharp criticism of NATO during the US presidential election campaign, the Pew Research Center says.
Answering an open-ended question late last month, another poll showed that 31 percent of Americans said Russia currently represents the “greatest danger” to the US – the highest percentage in nearly three decades.
The Pew Research Center survey also found that Russia is by far the number one national threat in the eyes of Democrats, 39 percent of whom see Russia as America’s greatest threat. Just 21 percent of Dems cited North Korea, and only 13 percent flagged China.
