Numerous U.S. allies trust Putin more than Trump, survey finds

Citizens of U.S. allies — including Japan, South Korea, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden — trust Russian President Vladimir Putin more than President Trump, a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday revealed. Although citizens of these countries are leery of Putin, they have greater trust in him than in Trump to "do the right thing regarding world affairs," Pew found.

Of 36 countries surveyed, 22 reported trusting Putin more. In Greece and Lebanon, for instance, citizens trust Putin more than Trump by a margin of 31 percentage points. Putin is more trusted by a margin of 21 points in Vietnam; 14 points in Germany, Tunisia, and Mexico; and 10 points in South Korea.

In numerous countries, Trump does beat out Putin in trustworthiness — which is comforting considering a global average of just 26 percent of people say they have confidence in the Russian president. Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa were all among the countries that said they trusted Trump more than Putin. However, Trump just narrowly edges out Putin in several of those countries, with Australia trusting Trump more by a margin of only 2 points; Canada and the U.K. by 3 points; and the Netherlands by 5 points.

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The results, which are part of Pew's Spring 2017 Global Attitudes Survey, have a margin of error ranging from plus or minus 3 percentage points to plus or minus 5.7 percentage points. Between 852 to 2,464 people were surveyed in each country from Feb. 16 to May 8.