RedBridge-Accent rolling tracking poll shows two-thirds of voters think Peter Dutton best equipped to manage Donald Trump

A new poll has revealed who is better equipped to navigate Australia’s relationship with US President Donald Trump – Peter Dutton or Anthony Albanese.

Two-thirds of voters want a prime minister who can manage Australia’s relationship with US President Donald Trump – and consider Peter Dutton best equipped to do so.

The new RedBridge-Accent poll of 20 marginal seats, 31 per cent of voters rate the Opposition Leader as the best able to manage the relationship compared to 22 per cent for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Of the 63 per cent who want the relationship more closely managed, voters over 65 were both more likely to say they thought managing the relationship was important to how they would vote and much more likely to say Mr Dutton would be best to handle it than younger voters aged between 18 and 34.

On the question of whether Australia should have a closer or more distant relationship with Mr Trump and the United States, voters were reasonably evenly split.

Almost a third – 30 per cent – thought Australia should be closer to the US while 29 per cent thought the country should be more distant and 35 per cent thought it should stay the same.

But overall the poll found President Trump is regarded unfavourably by 59 per cent of voters while only 23 per cent regard him well.

He is disliked by three-quarters of Labor voters, 86 per cent of Greens voters and even 44 per cent of Coalition supporters.

The President is much more unpopular with women – two-thirds of whom have an unfavourable view of him – compared to half of men.

There were also substantial differences between the sexes on the question of who is best able to manage the relationship.

At 22 per cent there was no difference between the share of men and women who thought Mr Albanese would be the best to handle the issue.

Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

But while 37 per cent of men opted for Mr Dutton, only 26 per cent of women favoured him.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Trump is far more unpopular with Labor voters, two thirds of whom have a highly unfavourable view of him, compared with Coalition voters, roughly one-third of whom viewed him highly unfavourably.

The voters with the highest opinion of Mr Trump were those who said they supported ‘other,’ 23 per cent of whom said they had a very favourable view of him, while Greens voters were the lowest with less than 1 per cent having a highly favourable view.

RedBridge Director Tony Barry said “being seen as a Xerox of Trump in Australia comes with big risk and little reward” for local leaders, given Australians strongly negative view of the US President.

“But the opportunity for Peter Dutton is that 63 per cent of voters consider it an important vote consideration for the Australian Prime Minister to have a good relationship with Trump and 31 per cent believe Peter Dutton would better manage that relationship versus just 22 per cent for Anthony Albanese,” he said.

“If the Liberal campaign can frame this equity lead as having an economic and cost-of-living benefit for Australians there is opportunity to leverage this personally salient sentiment.”

Voters over 65 were both more likely to say they thought managing the relationship was important to how they would vote and much more likely to say Mr Dutton would be best to handle it than younger voters aged between 18 and 34.

There were also substantial differences between the sexes on the question of who is best able to manage the relationship.

At 22 per cent there was no difference between the share of men and women who thought Mr Albanese would be the best to handle the issue.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to media after a visit to the Westmead Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Wentworthville. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

But while 37 per cent of men opted for Mr Dutton, only 26 per cent of women favoured him.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Trump is far more unpopular with Labor voters, two thirds of whom have a highly unfavourable view of him, compared with Coalition voters, roughly one-third of whom viewed him highly unfavourably.

The voters with the highest opinion of Mr Trump were those who said they supported ‘other,’ 23 per cent of whom said they had a very favourable view of him, while Greens voters were the lowest with less than 1 per cent having a highly favourable view.

On the question of whether Australia should have a closer or more distant relationship with Mr Trump and the United States, voters were reasonably evenly split.

President Trump is regarded unfavourably by 59 per cent of voters while only 23 per cent regard him well.

US President Donald Trump. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

He is disliked by three-quarters of Labor voters, 86 per cent of Greens voters and even 44 per cent of Coalition supporters.

The President is much more unpopular with women – two-thirds of whom have an unfavourable view of him – compared to half of men.

Almost a third – 30 per cent – thought Australia should be closer to the US while 29 per cent thought the country should be more distant and 35 per cent thought it should stay the same.

RedBridge Director Tony Barry said “being seen as a Xerox of Trump in Australia comes with big risk and little reward” for local leaders, given Australians strongly negative view of the US President.

“But the opportunity for Peter Dutton is that 63 per cent of voters consider it an important vote consideration for the Australian Prime Minister to have a good relationship with Trump and 31 per cent believe Peter Dutton would better manage that relationship versus just 22 per cent for Anthony Albanese,” he said.

“If the Liberal campaign can frame this equity lead as having an economic and cost-of-living benefit for Australians there is opportunity to leverage this personally salient sentiment.”

Originally published as RedBridge-Accent rolling tracking poll shows two-thirds of voters think Peter Dutton best equipped to manage Donald Trump