About one in four Americans across every generation views President Donald Trump as the "biggest threat to world peace"—more so than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to a new YouGov/Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation poll, 27 percent of American adults view Trump as the largest threat to world peace, compared with Kim (22 percent) and Putin (15 percent).
China's Xi Jinping and Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro are also seen as less threatening than Trump. Just 13 percent of U.S. adults polled viewed Jinping as the biggest threat to world peace, and 5 percent saw Maduro as the biggest threat. Both Jinping and Maduro have been accused of crimes against humanity this year.
Americans of every generation see Trump as the largest threat to world peace, according to the poll. Millennials were the group that viewed Trump as the biggest risk (28 percent) followed by baby boomers (27 percent), Gen Z (26 percent) and Gen X (25 percent).
The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the results of the poll.
The annual survey polled more than 2,000 Americans aged 16 and older. The poll was conducted by YouGov for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that educates Americans about the history and legacy of communism.
The poll was conducted in early September, before the House of Representatives launched its official impeachment inquiry against Trump. The probe began amid reports that Trump tried to arrange a quid pro quo deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The communication between the two world leaders was so troubling that an official in the intelligence community filed a whistleblower complaint charging that Trump appeared to be abusing his power.
While Trump has dismissed the probe as a "Democratic witch hunt," public support for removing him from office has increased. A Quinnipiac University poll released on October 23 showed that 55 percent of registered voters approved of the inquiry, up 4 percentage points from the week before. The survey also found that 48 percent of voters backed Trump's removal, which was a 2 point jump from the week before. In fact, Americans are getting on board with impeaching Trump much faster than they did with President Richard Nixon.
The YouGov/Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation poll also found that a large majority of Americans (80 percent) trust themselves over the government and their community to take care of their own interests.
But older generations are more likely to see it that way than younger generations. Over 90 percent of boomers and the silent generation (ages 74 and up) responded that they have more faith in themselves than in the government, while just 66 percent of Gen Z and millennials felt that way.
This article was updated to include an infographic.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more
