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The proportion of Poles saying that 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, new data from state research agency CBOS shows.
Meanwhile, the proportion of Poles saying that the US has a positive influence on the world has also dropped to its lowest recorded level, while 60% of Poles say they are concerned about Donald Trump’s presidency.
Since 1987, CBOS has been periodically asking Poles: “How do you assess current Polish-American relations?”
In its most recent poll, carried out in April 2025, only 31% of respondents said relations are “good”. That was the lowest figure recorded since 1988, when Poland was still under communist rule and the figure stood at 28%.
The latest figure also marks a dramatic fall from two years ago, when 80% of Poles (the joint-highest ever figure alongside 1990, just after the call of communism) said that relations with the US were good.
Meanwhile, 10% of Poles currently regard relations with the US as “bad”, which is also the highest figure since 1988, when it stood at 20%. Just over half (52%) say that relations are currently “neither good nor bad”.
Since 2006, CBOS has also been asking Poles: “Whether, generally speaking, you think that the United States has a positive or negative influence on the world?”
In April 2025, only 20% of respondents said that the US has a positive influence, the lowest figure ever recorded. Meanwhile, 29% believe it has a negative influence, a figure exceeded only in 2008, when it stood at 35%. A further 33% answered “it depends” and 10% said “neither positive nor negative”.
In its latest research, CBOS also asked Poles how they feel about Donald Trump’s presidency. A majority, 60%, said they are concerned, 19% felt indifferent, 15% were hopeful and 7% answered that it was hard to say.
As in other European countries, Trump’s return to the White House has fostered uncertainty in Poland about the extent to which Warsaw can rely on US security guarantees. Poland has also been one of Ukraine’s strongest allies and Russia’s most vocal critics.
There have also been concerns that previous critical statements towards Trump by members of Polish government, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, could harm relations with Washington, and about the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
However, both the Polish government and the Trump administration have talked positively in recent months about the strength of relations between the two countries. Poland has continued to sign large military procurement deals with the US.
Yet Trump also maintains close relations with Poland’s main conservative opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), and PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda. Yesterday, Trump met with the PiS-backed candidate in next month’s presidential elections, Karol Nawrocki, at the White House.
Donald Trump has met with conservative Polish opposition presidential candidate @NawrockiKn at the White House.
His supporters have celebrated the invitation, but figures from Poland's ruling coalition accused Trump of interfering in the election campaign https://t.co/atMknjElOM
— 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.
