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President Trump’s policiesPresident Trump’s policies
About the author
Natasha Kassam
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
Reinforcing low levels of confidence in President Trump, Australians are sceptical of a number of his signature policies. President Trump’s attempt to engage with other authoritarian leaders meets with some approval, however. President Trump was the first US president to travel to North Korea and meet with its leader Kim Jong-un, and many Australians appear to support this ‘summit diplomacy’ with Kim: two thirds (66%) say they approve of his ‘negotiating with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about the country’s nuclear weapons program’. A similar number (63%) approve of improved relations between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Most Australians disapprove of President Trump’s ‘America First’ policies
However, most Australians appear to disapprove of President Trump’s “America First” policies. Only a third of Australians (35%) approve of President Trump ‘increasing tariffs on imported goods from other countries’.
About a quarter of Australians (24%) approve of President Trump ‘criticising the defence spending of allies of the US’. Even fewer Australians (22%) approve of the US withdrawal from negotiations to form the Trans–Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement between 11 Asia–Pacific countries including Australia.
Only a small minority (19%) approve of President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from international climate change agreements after the formal process to leave the Paris Agreement on climate change commenced in 2019.
