Roughly four in ten Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believe the United States benefits from NATO membership, according to a poll released Monday.
A Pew Research Center poll found that 38 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believe that American membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) benefits the United States. This is a 17-percent drop from 2021, when 55 percent of Republicans believed that NATO membership aided America.
Now, 60 percent of Republicans believe the United States benefits not too much or not at all from being part of the alliance with European countries. This marks the first time that a majority of Republicans have had such a dismal view of America’s membership in NATO.
Overall, 59 percent of those polled believe that NATO helps the United States, and 82 percent of Democrats also believe that NATO helps the United States.
The survey of Americans’ view of NATO was conducted as President Donald Trump has said he was strongly considering withdrawing America from NATO.
“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” he said in an interview in early April.
Pew wrote:
The survey also finds that most Americans (63%) are not confident that Trump can make good decisions when it comes to working effectively with NATO.
Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to be very or somewhat confident that Trump can make good decisions when it comes to working effectively with NATO. Roughly six-in-ten Republicans (62%) say this, compared with 11% of Democrats. Among Democrats, around two-thirds say they are not at all confident in Trump’s ability to work effectively with the alliance.
Pew said that Americans’ belief in the benefits of NATO dropped after Russia’s conflict with Ukraine started in April 2022.
