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Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of his German
counterpart Angela Merkel's performance, a majority of Americans say
that they have more confidence in Merkel as a leader than they do in
Trump, a new Pew Research survey said on Wednesday.
According to the survey, 56 percent of Americans have more confidence
in Merkel, while 46 percent say they have more confidence in Trump.
However, the survey found that there is a sharp partisan divide on
the issue, with 64 percent of Democrats trusting Merkel more than Trump
while 89 percent of Republicans have more faith in Trump.
The survey was published days before Trump and Merkel were reportedly
set to meet on Thursday before the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Trump and Merkel had a long history of disagreement that was previously focused on the two leaders' view on immigration.
During his campaign and also after winning the presidency, Trump
repeatedly blasted Merkel for making a "catastrophic mistake" with her
open door policy on refugees, while Merkel did not shy away from
criticizing Trump in the wake of his travel ban order that sought to
temporarily ban travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries in
January.
A fter Trump announced his decision to pull the United States out of
the landmark Paris Agreement last month, Merkel became one of the most
vocal critics of Trump's abandonment of the climate treaty.
"We will and must take on this existential challenge," said Merkel in
an address before German parliament on Thursday. "We cannot and will
not wait until every last person in the world can be convinced of
climate change by scientific evidence."
