Biden generally favored abroad aside from Israel-Gaza war handling, poll finds

A new Pew Research survey has found that Joe Biden’s global perception is generally favorable – but most abroad disapprove of how the US president has handled Israel’s war in Gaza.

According to survey results released on Tuesday, a median of 43% across 34 countries have confidence in Biden to “do the right thing” regarding world affairs. However, a median of 57% across 34 countries disapprove of Biden’s approach to the war in the Middle East, where, according to estimates, Israeli forces have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis and took hostages.

Related: Biden supporters mostly back him in 2024 election because they oppose Trump, poll finds

Majorities in 10 countries have confidence in Biden. The countries with his largest shares of popularity are in the Philippines, where 77% of the population has indicated confidence towards him; Kenya, at 75%; and Poland, at 70%.

Biden is least favorable in Tunisia, where 89% have indicated zero confidence towards him, as well as in Turkey – where that figure is 87%.

Across 10 European countries surveyed, the majorities in six of those nations do not have confidence in Biden, including 56% in France and 72% in Hungary.

By contrast, most in Canada and across Europe do not have confidence in Donald Trump, Biden’s presidential predecessor and the presumptive nominee to challenge him in November’s election.

According to the survey, more than eight in 10 hold this view in France, Germany and Sweden. Trump – who was convicted of 34 felonies in late May in connection with a plot to cover up hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels – also scored poorly in Latin America, where at least six in 10 in every country surveyed have no confidence in him to do the right thing in global affairs, including 86% in Mexico.

Speaking about the findings on Tuesday, Pew’s director of global attitudes research, Richard Wike, said: “As the US presidential election approaches, what we see in our international surveys is that there is significantly more confidence in president Biden than in former president Trump … In part, it’s due to personal characteristics – for example, in our polls, people have been much more likely to say Biden is well-qualified to be president than to say this about Trump. In contrast, they have been more likely to describe Trump as dangerous.”

Wike added: “Biden also gets higher ratings than Trump because people tend to like his policies better. In particular, they have generally seen him as being more of a multilateralist and as working more closely with other countries to solve international challenges.”

Despite Biden’s higher popularity compared with Trump, the president’s global ratings have declined since last year in 14 of 21 countries where trends are available, the survey revealed.

Those countries include Australia, Israel, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Opinions in 34 countries polled surrounding Biden’s handling of major international issues are divided, with the exception of the Israel-Gaza war. Climate change and global economic problems are two areas of Biden’s international policies in which his approval and disapproval ratings are nearly evenly divided. For each area, 44% indicated their disapproval while 43% indicated their approval.

The Israel-Gaza war is where those surveyed were most divided with respect to Biden. In addition to a median of 57% indicating their disapproval of the Gaza war, six in 10 Israelis disapproved of how Biden had handled the conflict, including 54% of Jewish Israelis and 86% of Arab Israelis.

Among the Muslim countries surveyed, large majorities in Tunisia, Turkey and Malaysia have significant disapproval towards Biden’s handling of the war. In Tunisia, 93% indicated disapproval. Meanwhile, in Turkey and Malaysia, 85% and 84% indicated disapproval, respectively.

The survey also found that adults under 35 years old in Australia, Canada and some European countries are less likely than those ages 50 and older to approve of Biden’s handling of the war.

In France and the UK, 18% and 19% of younger adults, respectively, are roughly half as likely as older adults – at 40% and 41%, respectively – to rate Biden positively on his response to the Gaza war.

Moreover, in Japan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand, younger adults are more likely than older ones to approve of Biden’s handling of the war.