News / Politics

Majority of Americans believe Trump's Syria move damages US reputation: Poll

Friday, 18 October 2019 4:14 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 18 October 2019 4:22 PM ]

US President Donald Trump

The majority of Americans have said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria and allow Turkey to attack Kurds there has damaged the United States’ reputation as a trusted ally, a new poll has shown.

Fifty-four percent of Americans said Trump’s decision damages the nation’s reputation as a trusted ally, based on the USA Today/Ipsos poll released on Friday.

However, 61 percent said the United States had an obligation to protect the Kurds from Turkey.

Some 72 percent of Democrats said Trump’s decision damaged America’s reputation as an ally and 50 percent of independents also said the same thing. However, only a little less than half of Republicans agree with that.

Turkey last week began pounding the positions of Kurdish fighters with jets and artillery and sent in troops to purge them from the area east of Euphrates.

The offensive came three days after Trump announced he would pull US troops from the region, effectively exposing its allied Kurdish militants to their archenemy, Turkey.

Trump's move to withdraw troops from Syria was widely condemned by both Republican and Democratic Party lawmakers in Congress, including Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C).

US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said that Turkey agreed to end the military offensive in northern Syria after Kurdish fighters withdraw from Erdogan’s desired safe zone in Syria near the Turkish border, where the Turkish leader wants to relocate the estimated two million Syrian refugees who are in Turkey.

Trump said in return he would suspend the economic sanctions that he imposed on Turkey earlier in the week.

‘Trump job approval slips 2 points’

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll released on Friday showed that Trump’s job approval plunged 2 points, down to 40.7 percent, in his 11th quarter in office. The quarter began on July 20 and ends Oct. 19.

This quarter is not the lowest in Trump’s time in the White House. It is still higher than in five other quarters and in his fourth quarter in office the president’s approval rating hit 36.8 percent.

The 42.7 percent approval rating in the 10th quarter was Trump's highest in the Gallup poll since taking office.

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