'We Want Trump'? France and Germany Have More Faith in Vladimir Putin Than in Donald Trump

The French and the Germans said they had more faith in Russian President Vladimir Putin than they did in U.S. President Donald Trump, according to two separate polls.

A poll published by the U.S. government-funded outlet Radio Free Europe indicated that about 35 percent of German and 20 percent of French people surveyed in 2018 said they had faith in Putin. By comparison, 10 percent of German and 9 percent of French people surveyed expressed faith in Trump, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center published in October.

Trump recently claimed, falsely, that the protesters rioting in France over a proposed gas tax hike and general disapproval of the government were chanting, "We want Trump." The president's decision to weigh in on the ongoing protests led the French foreign minister to warn Trump to stay out of the country's internal affairs.

Surveys have suggested that Europeans overall have very little faith in the U.S. president. Europeans polled were asked whether they had confidence that Trump would do the right thing regarding world affairs. Researchers noted the percentage of people who believe in the U.S. president's ability to make good decisions remained low between 2017 and 2018.

Trump had the lowest approval rating in Spain, where 93 percent of respondents said they did not believe in the U.S. leader's ability to make good decisions. Meanwhile, he had the highest approval rating in Poland, but 56 percent of people surveyed said they did not believe in him.

Putin, unsurprisingly, had a very low approval rating in Poland, where only 7 percent of respondents said they believed he would do the right thing in regard to world affairs. Poland, which has a complicated history with its Russian neighbor, has called for a permanent U.S. military base to be stationed within its borders to stave off the threat from Moscow.

People in Greece expressed more trust in Putin than respondents in any other country. Around 45 percent of those queried said they trusted Putin in 2018, despite the fact that the country expelled several Russian diplomats this year over allegations they funded protesters and attempted to meddle in the country's internal affairs.

Putin's approval rating in the United Kingdom, meanwhile, dropped substantially between 2017 and 2018. The U.K. had accused Russia of attempting to poison and kill a former Russian double agent in the country, and British police reopened the investigation into the alleged suicide of a British man who worked for several oligarchs who opposed Putin.

Only 22 percent of respondents in the U.K. in 2018 said they trusted Putin to do the right thing, compared with 37 percent the year before, according to the Radio Free Europepoll.