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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Only 35% of people in Poland say they have confidence in US President Donald Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs compared to 75% who had confidence in Joe Biden one year ago.
That 40 percentage point decline was the third largest recorded by the Pew Research Center in a new international study, behind only Sweden (48 p.p.) and Germany (45 p.p.).
Meanwhile, Pew’s polling, which was conducted in 24 countries, found that 55% of people in Poland currently have a positive view of the United States, down from 77% a year ago.
That 22 percentage point drop was the third largest recorded by Pew, behind only Mexico (32 p.p) and Sweden (28 p.p.) and larger than Canada (20 p.p).
In only five countries have views of the US become more favourable under Trump: Turkey (where they increased by 7 percentage points), Nigeria (6 p.p.), Israel (6 p.p), India (3 p.p.) and South Africa (1 p.p.).
Overall, however, Poles remain relatively pro-American by European standards, with only Hungary (60%) having a higher proportion of people holding favourable views of the US.
Views of Trump in Poland are particularly strongly influenced by political affiliation. Among Poles with a favourable view of the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which enjoys strong relations with Trump, 62% have confidence in the US president.
Among those with unfavourable views of PiS, only 21% have confidence in him. That 41 percentage point difference was the joint-third-largest among right-wing populist parties in Europe, behind only Hungary’s ruling Fidesz (61 p.p.) and the Alternative for Germany (48 p.p.).
Among those in Poland who identify with the political right, 56% express confidence in Trump compared to only 13% on the political left. That gap, of 43 percentage points, was behind only Israel (72 p.p.) and Australia (50 p.p.)
Meanwhile, 44% of men in Poland say they have confidence in Trump compared to only 26% of women. That was the second-largest gender gap (of 18 p.p.) among all countries, behind only Sweden (19 p.p.)
Trump’s return to the White House has caused particular concern in Poland over how he will handle Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine. Pew found that only 28% of Poles have confidence in Trump when it comes to resolving that conflict, below the median figure of 33% among all 24 countries.
However, once again, views are influenced by political affiliation: 51% of PiS sympathisers have confidence in Trump’s ability to deal with the war in Ukraine compared to only 17% of those who hold unfavourable views of PiS.
Ahead of the recent presidential election in Poland, Trump invited the PiS-backed candidate, Karol Nawrocki, for a meeting in the Oval Office while Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, gave a speech in Poland encouraging Poles to vote for Nawrocki.
Pew’s new findings echo those of Polish state research agency CBOS, which found earlier this year that the proportion of Poles saying their country has good relations with the United States has fallen by almost 50 percentage points since two years ago to reach its lowest level since the end of communism.
The proportion of Poles saying Poland has good relations with the US has fallen to its lowest since the end of communism.
The proportion saying the US has a positive influence on the world has also dropped to its lowest recorded level.
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— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 2, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Grzegorz Jakubowski/KPRP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
