Support from Americans for NATO and supporting Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia is decreasing, as reported in a survey that was released on Wednesday. survey published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
The Pew survey puts hard numbers behind divides playing out on Capitol Hill over support for Ukraine and attacks by former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, criticizing NATO countries as failing to share the burden of the security alliance.
In the last election, the role of the U.S. in the world, as a NATO member or on its own, will be a significant topic for voters, candidates, and debates, according to Moira Fagan, Research Associate with Pew.
These numbers really speak to that moment.(
While most Americans still support NATO (58 percent), there has been a 4 percentage point drop since 2023, which the authors say is a significant decline.
The partisan divisions are starker, with three-quarters of Democrats viewing the organization favorably, compared to only 43 percent of Republicans. This is a decrease from 55 percent in March 2022, one month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
These numbers have changed, with Republicans showing less support for Ukraine. At the beginning of the war in 2022, about half of Republicans felt the U.S. was not offering enough support to Ukraine, whereas only 9 percent said that at that time.
Now, about half of Republicans believe the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine, while 13 percent say not enough help is being given.
Democrats have largely stayed consistent in expressing that there is not enough support or that the level of support is about right.
The numbers indicate deep divisions among Republicans in Congress, as most House GOP members voted against a $61 billion security assistance package for Ukraine in April, which was delayed for months due to Republican opposition. The bill was eventually passed with Democratic support.
The Pew poll took place April 1-7, shortly before the House passed assistance for Ukraine. It surveyed 3,600 U.S. adults who are members of the center’s American Trends Panel, and respondents are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses.
Pew said the survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.
The survey also tested Americans’ knowledge of NATO, with a little over half (56 percent) correctly identifying Europe and North America as the two regions from which the alliance draws membership. Although Americans are confused over Ukraine’s relationship to the alliance, with 41 percent correctly identifying it as a non-member.
Those who are more knowledgeable about NATO are more likely to view the organization favorably, according to the report’s authors.
Fagan said the numbers show that there is no political divide in understanding NATO, indicating that Americans are generally well-informed about current events and important debate topics.
President Biden plans to hold the annual NATO summit in Washington in July, which will be the alliance's 75th anniversary. NATO allies see the summit as an important chance to show support for Ukraine, even though there is disagreement among members about Ukraine's future in the alliance.
While most Democrats and Republicans in Congress back U.S. participation in NATO, former President Trump has been focused on the alliance. He has threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO, hesitated to commit to the mutual-defense pact, and criticized member states for not meeting the alliance's defense spending goal of two percent of GDP.
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