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The number of Americans who consider Russia an "enemy" to the U.S. has fallen to its lowest point since the nation's president, Vladimir Putin, launched an expansionist war against Ukraine in 2022, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.
The shift has largely been driven by shifting opinions among Republicans who are falling in line with President Donald Trump’s defense of Putin and his false assertions that Ukraine began the war.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said Monday in the White House.
According to Pew's poll, Americans who said Russia is the U.S.'s "enemy" have fallen to 50 percent, down from 61 percent in April 2024 and 70 percent in March 2022, just after the invasion's start.
Among Republicans specifically, only 40 percent saw Russia as an enemy, which is down from 58 percent last year and 69 percent in March 2022. Only 34 percent of Americans overall now describe Russia as a competitor to the U.S., and only 9 percent describe it as a "partner."
Current Republican sentiment towards Russia has essentially returned to what it was just before Russia invaded Ukraine. In January 2022, 39 percent of Republicans polled said they viewed Russia as an enemy. Approximately 12 percent of Republican respondents said they viewed Russia as a partner, which is actually higher than the number of people sharing those sentiments prior to the invasion.
“More Republicans see Russia as a competitor than as an enemy for the first time since before the Russia-Ukraine war started,” the author of the survey wrote.
Pew's survey included 3,605 U.S. adults between March 24 and March 30, just after Trump and Putin held a highly publicized phone call.
The survey's margin of sampling error is 1.9 percentage points and 2.7 percentage points for results among Democrats and Republicans.
The survey also occurred after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for the help the U.S. has provided Ukraine in its defense efforts.
Democrats were far more likely to express confidence in Zelensky's leadership than Republicans. According to the poll, 70 percent of Democrats said they were confident in Zelensky's leadership versus only 30 percent of Republicans.
Only 12 percent of respondents said they had "some" confidence in Putin to "do the right thing regarding world affairs," and 57 percent said they had no confidence in Putin at all. Approximately half of Americans have a lot or some confidence in Zelensky.
“Over the past year, Republicans have become somewhat more likely to see Russia favorably and to express confidence in Putin, while Democratic views are largely unchanged,” the survey authors wrote.
Trump has pressed for peace between Ukraine and Russia, but Moscow officials have expressed recently that it is unlikely the nations will reach an agreement anytime soon, according to the Washington Post.
In addition to fewer Americans seeing Russia as an enemy, fewer also feel that the U.S. has a responsibility to support Ukraine in its defense.
According to the poll, 44 percent of respondents said the US needs to help defend Ukraine, down from 50 percent following the U.S. presidential election in November.
Pew reports that the drop has been driven by Republican lawmakers' criticism of the U.S.'s role in Ukraine's national defense. Among Republicans, only 23 percent now believe that America should defend Ukraine, down from 36 percent in November.
