Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump's performance in Helsinki

Republican party leaders were by and large not impressed with how President Trump declined to side with the U.S. intelligence community regarding Russian election interference while in Helsinki on Monday. Republican party members, meanwhile, think the president did a great job.

An Axios and SurveyMonkey poll published Thursday found that 79 percent of Republicans approve of how Trump handled his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just 18 percent of Republicans said they did not approve.

In stark contrast, 91 percent of Democrats disapproved of Trump's performance, with 7 percent saying they approved. Among independents, 62 percent disapproved and 33 percent approved. Axios additionally noted that 85 percent of Republicans see the topic of Russian interference as "a distraction," while 85 percent of Democrats say it's a "serious issue." Overall, more than half of those polled said they don't trust the Trump administration to prevent foreign interference in the 2018 elections.

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The Axios/SurveyMonkey poll was conducted online between July 16 and 17. A total of 2,100 adults were polled, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. See more poll results here.