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After freezing nearly all foreign aid in late January, the Trump administration has been attempting to fire thousands of employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development in hopes of dismantling the organization entirely.
Elon Musk, the billionaire and newly appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has repeatedly attacked USAID, which handles projects across 141 countries worldwide, saying it is “time for it to die.” The agency’s future remains unclear as a judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s bid to put 2,200 USAID workers on administrative leave, though the funding freeze remains in place.
Despite Trump’s swift crackdown on foreign aid, the American people do not approve of the freeze on USAID, The Independent can exclusively reveal, according to a poll of 1,946 Americans by Prolific.
Half (49 percent) of all respondents said they did not approve of immediately stopping all U.S. aid to foreign countries, while a third supported the action, and 17 percent were unsure.
More broadly, the majority of respondents (51 percent) believe that the U.S. should continue to provide aid abroad, while just 25 percent disagreed, according to the exclusive poll carried out on February 3.
“Even if most Americans probably do not closely follow the various nuances of foreign aid policy, these results suggest that there exists broader support for the US maintaining an active role in global humanitarian and development efforts than some might expect,” explains Dr. Andrew Gordon, a researcher at Prolific.
Even one in four Republicans (27 percent) believe that the U.S. should provide aid abroad in general, while under half (45 percent) believe that the U.S. should not provide aid abroad.
Dr. Gordon suggests that the notable Republican support for aid overall could lead to an “overreach [of Trump’s] party’s base,” and be unpopular with some of his core electorate.
“Any further attempts to curtail or overhaul USAID could therefore face significant public pushback, as a substantial share of Americans seem to value the benefits of foreign aid both as a tool of U.S. influence overseas and potentially as a reflection of the nation’s leadership on the world stage,” he told The Independent.
Nonetheless, the majority (63 percent) of Republicans supported the 90-day freeze.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Democrats (78 percent) support continuing U.S. aid abroad.
Aside from Republicans, men and rural voters were the most likely to say that the U.S. should not continue providing aid, at a third each; although both groups still supported foreign aid overall.
But President Trump’s foreign policy moves have extended far beyond the USAID freeze; ranging from attempts to block birthright citizenship, to sanctions on the International Criminal Court, and even floating a plan to turn war-torn Gaza into a “real estate investment.”
According to the new poll, a large number of Americans (47 percent) do not believe that Trump is acting in the best interests of United States, with just 39 percent believing he is.
When asked whether they believe that the president is acting in their own best interests, an even higher number disagree (51 percent); with just a third (32 percent) of Americans believing that Trump is acting in their best interest. The rest are unsure.
Young people (aged 24 and under) are the most likely to believe that the president is acting against their best interest (57 percent). Meanwhile, men are overall the most likely (38 percent) to think that Trump is acting in their best interests.
This level of disillusionment less than one month into his second administration is unusual for an incumbent president, explains Dr. Gordon.
“It’s fairly unusual this early in their term to have only around one-third of Americans believing they’re acting in the public’s best interests. Historically, new presidents often enjoy a ‘honeymoon period’ during which the public tends to trust their motives, or at least give them the benefit of the doubt,” he told The Independent.
“Skepticism usually appears later in a presidency and often amid scandals. For example, polling data from Richard Nixon’s second term in 1974 showed that 66% of Americans felt he was protecting himself rather than the country in the fallout from the Watergate scandal (Harris Poll). Similarly, during Bill Clinton’s impeachment in January 1998, 57% believed he was more focused on saving himself than doing his job (CNN/Time Poll). Both of these examples show high levels of public skepticism, but towards the later half of an incumbency.
“Seeing comparably high skepticism so soon into Trump’s presidency breaks from the more supportive beginnings typically enjoyed by other presidents.”
