By MARC LEVY and LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — While most Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the conflict is not weighing as heavily on his public perception as it did on President Joe Biden, a new poll shows.
That’s because of Trump’s solid support from his base on this issue. The survey of U.S. adults from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 8 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the conflict. Only about 4 in 10 Democrats approved of Biden’s handling of the conflict last June, shortly before Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
“During Trump’s first administration, we did not actively start any wars. And there’s a stark difference between his history and his first term versus the Biden presidency. And I think Trump is just trying to fix things that Biden let get out of hand,” said Patrick Vigil, a 60-year-old Republican from New Mexico who voted for Trump in November’s election.
The poll suggests Republicans are growing more satisfied with the country’s foreign policy actions as Trump pulls back U.S. support for Ukraine and puts new pressure on allies — notably with his talk of annexing Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Trump has warned Hamas that there would be “hell to pay” if Israeli hostages weren’t returned immediately and urged Israel to wrap up their offensive and “get it over with.” He has supported ceasefire talks in both conflicts and said he’d end the war between Ukraine and Russia within “24 hours” — or even before taking office. Since becoming president again, Trump has publicly torn into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but also tried to pressure Russia’s Vladimir Putin to accept a peace deal.
Broadly, Republicans are more content with the U.S. on solving global issues now that President Trump is in office. About half of Republicans say the U.S.’s current role in world affairs is about right, up from about 2 in 10 last February when Biden was president.
There’s a greater consensus that the U.S. should be focused on ceasefire negotiations in Israel and Ukraine than there was last year too. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to negotiate a permanent ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, up from about half in an AP-NORC poll conducted in February 2024, with a similar uptick on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Republicans have grown more committed to both foreign policy goals since Trump took office, according to the poll. For instance, about 6 in 10 Republicans now think it’s highly important for the U.S. to negotiate a permanent ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, up from about 4 in 10 last year.
“I think we really need to step back and figure out a way just to bring everybody to the table so that they can use their own resources and figure out what they need to do to compromise,” said Lisa Major, 61, a registered Republican from Kentucky who voted for Trump in November.
Keith Willey, a Republican-leaning registered independent from Florida who voted for a third-party candidate for president, said peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza have become more important to him over time amid mounting death and destruction.
But Willey said he doesn’t support a deal that allows Hamas to stay in control in Gaza and he doesn’t support a ceasefire in Ukraine that divides it up with Russia or hinges on the U.S. taking control of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
He still supports strong American intervention on Ukraine’s behalf against Russia, supports strong U.S. backing of Israel and doesn’t like Trump’s friendly relationship with Russia or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m not tired of giving weapons to Ukraine. I think we should support where we can to have them fight for their own country. But, generally speaking, I would like to see a ceasefire,” Willey, 63, said.
Many Republicans don’t want more investment in Ukraine, though — only about 2 in 10 think providing aid to Ukraine’s military to fight Russia is “extremely” or “very” important — and not all of Trump’s voters are satisfied with Trump’s ceasefire efforts.
Michael Johnson, a 36-year-old registered independent from North Carolina who voted for Trump, isn’t happy with Trump’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza or the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Johnson said Trump had held himself out as a president who could bring the wars to an end quickly but hasn’t.
“I don’t think he went through with what he said he would do,” Johnson said. “He said he would stop it, but it’s still going on. There’s a lot of people losing their lives out there, young kids and stuff.”
And many Republicans want Trump to continue shrinking American involvement abroad. About 4 in 10 Republicans now say the U.S. should take a less active role in world affairs.
That includes Major, who supports Trump, likes how he’s handling foreign conflicts and sees him trying to reduce the role the U.S. plays in the world, as she wants him to do.
“For one, it takes our attention off of the citizens of America, but also it may be sending a really negative message where we keep involving ourselves in other people’s issues when we can’t figure out our own issues,” Major said.
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,229 adults was conducted March 20-24, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.