US Public Opinion On Internationalism

It is hard to imagine a time when an American president was so active role around the globe. In recent weeks, we have had the new, fragile Middle East agreement, a phone call with Vladimir Putin and an upcoming meeting, another White House sit down with Volodymyr Zelensky, a bailout for Argentina, a rare earth minerals agreement with Australia, an Asian trip with a potential meeting with China’s Xi. The dealmaker-in-chief received a boost in recent polls on the Middle East situation (a new Emerson poll and an AP/NORC poll, to mention only two) and plaudits from world leader, but his foreign policy forays have done little to improve his overall standing. There are several reasons.

First, concerns about inflation overwhelm others for Americans today. In the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll taken as the Middle East deal was being finalized, 1% of registered voters said foreign affairs was most important issue to them personally. Forty-three percent said the economy/inflation was. Trump’s lack of progress on handling inflation is his greatest weakness.

Second, deep partisan differences about almost all things Trump limit any significant improvements in his ratings. In the Harvard/Harris poll, Democrats and Republicans were deeply split about most aspects of the Middle East deal. Only when told that “all the major Arab governments” supported the plan did it receive majority support among Democrats (56%), Republicans (87%) and independents (67%).

Third, while Americans have long valued talking with friends and enemies abroad, they understand that talk is very different from achieving lasting change. In most of the 24 Gallup questions asked since 1997 about the Middle East, more people have said that there will not be a time “when Israel and the Arab nations will be able to settle their differences and live in peace” than have said peace is possible.

But there is a fourth reason. Americans maintain a long-standing ambivalence about their nation’s role in the world. Americans recognize that as a great power, we must play some role on the global state, and the weight of public opinion still tilts towards engagement. t. At the same time, Americans are almost always reluctant about that involvement and more concerned about problems at home. The tension is well-documented in new and old polls. In a summer 2025 bipartisan survey for the Reagan Institute, 64% said it was better for the United States to be more engaged and take the lead when it comes to international events, while 23% said we should be less engaged and react to them. Two-thirds believed our involvement was mostly beneficial, while 19% called it harmful. But in another question, 57% said the US is better served by withdrawing from international affairs and focusing more attention on problems here at home.

Questions about what role the US should play internationally have a long history, and in the Roper Center’s archive of polls, there are scores of questions on the topic. To take just one early one, in 1942, 70% wanted the US to take an active role in foreign affairs when the war was over, while 21% wanted us to stay out of world events as much as we could. In 1947, when NORC began asking whether it would be best for us to take an active role or stay out, 66% voted for an active role and 26% stay out. The “isolationist” response rose to around a third during Vietnam, although the “internationalist” response always predominated.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has recorded a decline in support for international engagement over the nearly 50 years they have asked the question, although it is still a majority. In 2023, the Council found for the first time that less than half of Republicans (47%) supported taking an active part. In 2024, there was slight recovery among Republicans, but the Council still said support for an active role was near its record low. A 2025 Marquette Law School poll reinforced that familiar finding with 64% preferring an active role. Yet a 2025 Reuters/Ipsos question found that 58% said it was better if we stayed out of the affairs of other nations.

The weight of public opinion remains on the view that the United States must play a global role, and it isn’t clear we have a choice. Americans know that although many of our allies are upping their defense contributions and activities, the US is still bearing a disproportionate share of costs and burdens. Time will tell if the President’s unorthodox style will pay lasting dividends, giving engagement and his rating a boost.