What Americans Really Think of Trump’s Foreign Policy
What our new poll says about polarization and partisanship
President Trump embodies many contradictions when it comes to foreign policy. IGA’s newly released study, “Reckless Peacemaker? How Americans See Trump’s Foreign Policy,” tries to make sense of these contradictions by polling Americans on the biggest geopolitical challenges of today. We found that Americans think Trump is performing poorly overall, but there are wide partisan splits on almost every issue.
In this episode, the Institute for Global Affairs’ Jonathan Guyer, new host of None Of The Above, is joined by Andrew Payne, a research director at Chatham House, to break down some key findings. They also discuss how foreign policy plays into presidential elections, the geopolitical meaning of Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, and more.
Check out IGA’s report “Reckless Peacemaker? How Americans See Trump’s Foreign Policy”: https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/11/reckless-peacemaker-american-views-trump-foreign-policy/
Read Andrew’s Foreign Affairs article: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/americans-love-tough-guy
Listen Here: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Libsyn | Radio Public | Soundcloud | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS
Andrew Payne is a research director covering Europe, Russia, and the Americas at Chatham House. He is also a lecturer in foreign policy and security at City St. George’s, University of London and a research associate at the University of Oxford. He is the author of War on the Ballot: How the Election Cycle Shapes Presidential Decision-Making in War (Columbia University Press, 2023). His writing on US politics and foreign policy has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post and The Sunday Times.
