Voters in six swing states trust former president Donald Trump more than Vice President Kamala Harris on key global policy concerns including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, according to new polling from the Institute for Global Affairs.
When asked who would more strongly defend U.S. interests abroad, respondents favored Trump over Harris 56 percent to 44 percent in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to the poll. Trump holds an even bigger lead—58 percent to 42 percent—in the same states on more specific foreign policy questions, such as who is more likely to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as well as who is more likely to respond effectively if China takes action against Taiwan.
The poll, conducted from Aug. 15 to Aug. 22, was released the morning of President Joe Biden’s final address to the United Nations General Assembly. From its botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal to the ongoing war in Ukraine to rapidly escalating tensions in the Middle East, the Biden-Harris administration has led "the worst decline in world order and the largest decline in U.S. influence, since the 1930s," the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote on Monday.
"It is a far more dangerous world than Mr. Biden inherited, and far less congenial for U.S. interests, human freedom and democracy," the Journal’s editorial board continued. "Authoritarians have advanced on his watch in every part of the world—Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and even the Americas."
The conflicts could spell trouble for Harris, who has struggled to distance herself from her boss's weak record and define her own foreign policy platform. Trump, however, has been bombarding swing state voters with foreign policy messaging for months, which could be responsible for his advantage, Mark Hannah, a senior fellow at the Institute for Global Affairs, told Axios.
"We've seen that independents in battleground states tend to prefer a less interventionist foreign policy. So the fact that voters see Trump as more likely to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza might strengthen his popularity," Hannah added.