Survey: US public not in alignment with Trump on UN role

Despite the Trump administration's criticism of the United Nations as a feckless institution during the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, American public support for engaging with the world through the international body remains broad and consistent, according to a recent survey.

Following moves to withhold payments and withdraw from UN institutions early this year, US President Donald Trump took aim at the organization's priorities at the meeting, accusing the world body of offering nothing but "empty words" and labeling climate change a "con job".

"The United Nations wasn't there for us," he said.

The US public's attitude toward the UN, however, differs significantly from the approach taken by the Trump administration, particularly regarding the value of multilateralism and the effectiveness of the institution, new data from the 2025 Chicago Council Survey indicated.

In a survey report released on Monday, Craig Kafura, director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, noted that the majority of Americans favor making decisions through the UN, even at the cost of compromise.

According to the survey, two-thirds of Americans say the US should be more willing to make decisions within the United Nations, even if that means accepting a policy that is not its first choice.

That broad support includes majorities of Democrats (83 percent) and Independents (68 percent), though just four in 10 Republicans agree.

What makes the finding remarkable is its stability, as the 66 percent figure is identical to the level of support recorded in 2004, suggesting that despite two decades of foreign policy shifts and debates over America's role in the world, the public's belief in the value of multilateral compromise has endured.

"Despite the notable changes in the US approach to the United Nations under the second Trump administration, public support for the institution remains stable," Kafura wrote.

"Though few Americans follow UN issues closely, this suggests that much of the public is not on board with the administration's efforts to distance the United States from the United Nations," he added.

While Trump in his speech criticized the UN for not living up to its tremendous potential, and lamented having to undertake efforts to resolve conflicts that he claimed the UN "did not even try to help", four in 10 Americans view strengthening the United Nations as a very important goal for US foreign policy, a level that has remained relatively stable over the past 50 years.

Overall, three-quarters of Americans view participating in international organizations as an effective way to achieve US foreign policy goals, according to the survey.

The public also generally believes UN resolutions should be factored into US foreign policy, though the Trump administration's focus is on unilateral action.

The survey found that 77 percent of Americans believe US leaders should take UN resolutions into account either a "great deal" or a "fair amount" when making foreign policy decisions.

On the other hand, 62 percent of MAGA Republicans say the US should not be willing to work through the UN if it requires compromising US policy preferences.

Trump's speech, delivered at the annual assembly of world leaders at the UN marking the 80th anniversary of its founding, caught widespread global attention.

"President Donald Trump went scorched earth as he delivered an astonishing speech at the United Nations General Assembly today," reported a lead story in the US edition of Daily Mail website.

"The Trump administration views the United Nations as a useless, woke cesspool. Instead, the UN reflects the world as it is, assembled to 'save humanity from hell'," Bloomberg.com said in an opinion-piece titled "The US Assault on the UN Rests on a Tragic Misunderstanding".