President Donald Trump's return to the White House is having a greater impact on voters in Europe than the election of their own national leaders, according to a new international poll by Politico.
The findings underscore Trump's outsize influence on global politics in his second term — particularly across Europe's largest democracies.
The survey found that voters in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom view Trump's return to power as more significant for their countries than recent leadership changes at home.
In Germany, 53% of respondents said Trump's election was more important for their country than the election of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, compared with 25% who said the German vote mattered more.
In the U.K., 54% said Trump's return carried greater weight than Prime Minister Keir Starmer's victory, which ended 14 years of conservative rule. French voters were slightly less decisive, but still 43% said Trump's win mattered more than President Emmanuel Macron's election.
The results reflect widespread dissatisfaction among European voters with their own leaders' handling of Trump.
Only 24% of Germans said Merz had done a good job managing relations with Trump, while 34% said he had handled the relationship poorly.
In France, Macron fared worse, with just 16% approving of his approach and 39% disapproving. Starmer received mixed marks, with equal shares saying he had done well or badly.
European Union leadership scored lowest overall. In France, only 11% of respondents believed Brussels had handled Trump effectively, while nearly half said the EU had done a poor job.
Trump's blunt criticism of European leaders appears to resonate with voters abroad.
In a recent Politico interview, Trump described European leaders as “weak,” a view echoed by respondents who overwhelmingly rated Trump as more “strong and decisive” than their own leaders.
By margins of roughly 3-to-1, voters in Germany, France, and the U.K. said Trump demonstrated greater strength and decisiveness than their national leaders.
Canada stood out as an exception. There, 60% of respondents said Prime Minister Mark Carney was stronger and more decisive than Trump, while 40% favored Trump.
The poll also found that while voters value honesty and transparency above all else, strength and decisiveness remain areas where European leaders are seen as falling short.
Many respondents said they wanted their leaders to stand up to Trump in principle, but when asked about their own national leaders, preferred cooperation over confrontation.
The poll surveyed 10,510 adults from Dec. 5 to 9, with at least 2,000 respondents each from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, and Germany.
Results for each country have an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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