More Americans hold dim view of allies Trump antagonizes
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Americans' positive views of Canada and Great Britain, historically two of Washington's closest friends, hit their lowest level since the 1980s in new Gallup polling.
The big picture: President Trump has aggravated those allies, blasting their leaders, starting a global trade war, tossing around annexation threats and straining security alliances.
By the numbers: In the previous 12 months through February, Americans' positive ratings for Britain dropped by eight points and for Canada by nine.
- Americans' view of both is still overwhelmingly positive with the largest declines coming from Republicans.
- Canada's favorability among Republicans plummeted from 85% to 62%. Republicans' favorable rating for Great Britain fell to 64%, which is 18 points lower than the previous record low.
- Independents' views of Britain also hit a new low of 72% from 77% last year. Their warm feelings for Canada fell to 80% from 89% the prior year.
Yes, but: Canada remains popular with Democrats, 95% of whom view America's northern neighbor positively. Since 2011, at least nine in ten Democrats have viewed Canada favorably.
- Democrat's 89% favorability for Britain is down slightly from 93% but largely consistent with the last decade of data.
Worth noting: Americans rated Japan and Italy the highest, while Canada tied with Denmark for third.
Friction point: Gallup notes a number of factors strained Washington's diplomatic ties with Canada and Britain, including differences over major global conflicts.
- Amid a tariff-driven rift with the U.S., Canada took steps to improve trade with China.
- After their tension at the World Economic Forum, Trump revoked Prime Minister Mark Carney's invite to join his "Board of Peace."
The latest: Trump recently told The Telegraph that he was "very disappointed" in Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who reportedly blocked the U.S. from using UK bases to strike Iran before deciding to authorize them specific uses.
- The president took to Truth Social to call the UK "our once Great Ally," adding, "We don't need people that join Wars after we've already won!"
The other side: The chill is mutual.
- A February Politico-Public First poll found more than half of Canadians do not believe the U.S. is a reliable ally, and nearly seven in ten (69%) say Trump is actively seeking international conflict unprovoked.
- Ipsos polling from January found that 35% of Britons said there was "a special relationship" between Britain and the U.S. — an improvement from 30% in April 2025 but a sharp drop from 47% in 2024.
Methodology: Gallup results are based on telephone interviews conducted February 2-16, 2026, with a random sample of –1,001— adults living in all 50 U.S. states and D.C. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level
Go deeper: Europe answers Trump's call on Ukraine
