Australians don’t trust US President Donald Trump compared to other world leaders, says Lowy Institute poll

AUSTRALIANS have made it crystal clear they are not in the Donald Trump fan club in a stunning new poll.

President Donald Trump listens to a question from reporters on the North Lawn of the White House. Picture: AP/Evan Vucci

AUSTRALIANS have made clear they are not in the Donald Trump fan club, just over 500 days into his presidency.

We simply don’t trust the US President compared to other world leaders, according to the annual Lowy Institute poll released today.

And this lack of faith in him is infecting our opinion of America’s reliability.

Only 30 per cent of those surveyed said they had confidence in Mr Trump doing the right thing in world affairs, putting him just ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin on 19 per cent and Mr Trump’s recent summit partner Kim Jong-un of North Korea on a miserable five per cent.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was rated a more trustworthy world leader on 43 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, Australians had great faith in Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on 68 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rated 63 per cent in the confidence stakes, ahead of France’s President Emmanuel Macron on 61 per cent and Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi on 37 per cent.

A separate survey, by Essential Media, confirmed Mr Trump is falling in our stigmatising.

Just 22 per cent of those surveys said they had a favourable view of him, compared to 33 per cent in July last year.

His strongest Australian supporters were Liberal voters (30 per cent) and those who noted “other” (38 per cent).

US President Donald Trump speaks during the National Space Council meeting in the East Room of the White House. Picture: AFP / Brendan Smialowski

And again the US President was ahead of President Putin and Mr Kim.

The most popular world’s leaders, each with a 54 per cent favour ability rating, were New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But while Donald Trump is no pin-up world leader, our faith in the United States doing the right thing remains strong, according to the Lowy Institute poll.

But the Trump factor appears to have weakened the faith.

Asked to rate countries on their capacity to act responsibly, 55 per cent put their trust in the US.

But this was down from 61 per cent recorded by the Lowy Institute last year.

“Donald Trump appears to be a significant factor in this declining trust in the US,” said the foreign affairs think tank.

However, Trump or no Trump, our ties with America continue to be important for a large majority of Australians.

Some 76 per cent — same as last year — said the US alliance was important for Australia’s security and 64 per cent said Australia should remain close to the United States under Mr Trump.