The attacks by US President Donald Trump against world leaders have given many of them a boost in their approval notes, because the allies maintain what experts say they are an “external threat” posed by the Trump administration.
The leaders who suffered from survey in recent months and years – including outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his outgoing liberal party, and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – saw their popularity bounce since Trump returned to the White House in January, according to recent polls.
“Donald Trump makes other countries gather around their leaders in opposition,” said Matthew Lebo, professor of political science at Western University.
“It has the opposite effect of what it seems to want, which is to undermine people like Trudeau and Zelenskyy.”
Although Zelenskyy has long benefited from the support of the majority of Ukrainians, its approval rating fell since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, more than 80% at that time at 60% last November, According to Gallup. Other polls in early 2025 put Zelenskyy below 60%.
Trump seemed to stop this slide.
A survey published last week By the International Institute of Sociology of Kyiv, showed between February 14 and March 3 – a period which saw Trump call Zelenskyy a “dictator” and led to the disastrous oval office meeting between the two leaders – the Zelenskyy trust among the Ukrainians increased from 57% to 67%.
Another survey of European leaders By the Ukrainian rating group showed a similar jump for Zelenskyy at the end of February.
This same survey revealed that the highest jumps on the approval ratings since last year were for French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who recently sought to play a leadership role in the support of Ukraine.
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Macron and Starmer are relatively unpopular at home, but have seen small boosts in opinion polls because they deal with Trump in polls published last week. An Ifop survey for France to open saw the popularity of Macron climb to seven points in the last month at 31%, while the net approval of Starmer increased by 10 points to less than 23 in A new opinion poll for the observer.
Meanwhile, Trump’s prices and threats to annex Canada because the 51st American state has also strengthened Trudeau and the fortune of the Liberals.
An Ipsos survey was led last month for Global News – before the Liberals elected Mark Carney to replace Trudeau as a leader – put the Liberals slightly ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since 2021. According to Angus Reid.
Trump’s pricing threats have also led the Mexican Popular President Claudia Sheinbaum to her highest approval note of all time, According to an EL financial survey last week: 85% amazing.
“There is what we call a rallying around the flag ” in the approval ratings that generally occur in the threat or national crisis … in solidarity or as an act of patriotism against an external threat,” said Lebo.
He said recent examples included the high increase in the approval rating of former American president George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the own popularity bump of his father George HW Bush during the 1990s Gulf War – external threats very different from the one Trump poses.
A party that has not yet seen a vote among Trump’s attacks was the Democratic Party in the United States
A Quinnipiac survey last month Found that the opposition party in the congress is a historic hollow with only 21% support, against a record approval of 40% for the Republicans.
Will Trump go back the voters to the holders?
Trump was one of the many world leaders who won the elections last year on a wave of resentment against holders by voters who wanted the change. Starmer was another, while Macron and the power parties in South Korea and Japan saw their majorities and parliamentary coalitions collapse.
While the Germans nevertheless voted for a new government in the February elections – to offer historical blows to the Chancellor Olaf Scholz party and stimulate the extreme right alternative for Germany – fear and anger against Trump helped the Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford Cruise, to re -election a few days later.
It remains to be seen if other holders can repeat the success of Ford. It will be the big test for Carney, who swore on Sunday evening after winning the liberal management to face Trump as Prime Minister.
Darrell BRICKER, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, said that the survey shows that this is where Carney comes out in the lead for voters as opposed to its economic file of goodness and politics.
“Donald Trump has become the center of the universe, not only for the Americans, but for the citizens of the world,” he said in an interview.
“Its effect on the global environment will have an impact on what people think about their own internal political situation.”
This will include the reassessment of politicians who share Trump’s populist rhetoric, added Bricker, now that the voters have seen Trump in action.
In his victory speech on Sunday, Carney said that conservative chief Pierre Hairy “loves the altar of Donald Trump” and “would kneel before him,” if the Prime Minister elected.
Although Hairyvre was ranked the best leader to deal with Trump in an IPSOS survey last month, with 28% saying, an even greater number – 31% – said the conservative chief “would make and accept and accept everything that President Trump demands.”
Hairyvre has echoed Trump’s positions on issues such as the reduction of public service jobs and public spending, but has not adopted others as a repression against immigration.
“The question comes down to, do you want a politician to act and look like Trump in an electoral campaign to governing the way Donald Trump is governing now,” said Bricher.
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