Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains a higher level of global trust than U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll published Tuesday.
Respondents in 13 mainly European countries voiced the highest confidence in German Chancellor Angela Merkel (76%), French President Emmanuel Macron (64%) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (48%).
Putin comes in fourth, with 23% of global respondents saying they have confidence that he would “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” according to Pew.
The Russian president is four points ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping (19%) and seven points ahead of Trump (16%).
In contrast to the European leaders, Pew’s respondents voiced a higher lack of confidence in Putin (73%), Xi (78%) and Trump (83%).
“Ratings for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are overwhelmingly negative, although not as negative as those for Trump,” Pew said.
Putin’s trust gap with Trump has widened somewhat from last year, when 33% of Pew respondents from 33 countries expressed confidence in him compared to Trump’s 29%.
Pew conducted the phone survey among 13,273 respondents from nine European countries, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea between June 10 and Aug. 3.
More than 1000 current and former CDC staff hit out at Trump coronavirus response
More than 1,000 current and former staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have hit out at Donald Trump’s coronavirus response.
“The absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” read the letter signed by current and former disease investigators for the agency’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.
“CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency.”
Among those signing the letter were two former CDC directors, Jeffrey Koplan, who led the CDC under Bill Clinton and George W Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under Barack Obama.
The letter, published in the Epidemiology Monitor newsletter, also expressed concern “about the ominous politicisation and silencing of the nation’s health protection agency” during the virus.
The White House has been criticised for meddling in the CDC’s role, with the administration accused of editing official health guidance and changing language written by scientists.
“CDC has today, as it has every day during its 74-year history, provided the best available information and recommendations to the American public,” the agency said in response.
“Since January, more than 5,200 CDC personnel have dedicated themselves to protecting the health of the American people.”
More than 224,000 people in the US have died from the coronavirus during the pandemic with more than 8.3 million cases registered.
