Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of how Trump is handling the Russia-Ukraine war, a gap that widens when Americans learn more about Trump's peace plan.
What you need to know about how Americans see the the Russia-Ukraine war, as of the November 28 - December 1, 2025 Economist / YouGov Poll:
- Most Americans say they know little (28%) or nothing (43%) about Donald Trump's proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan. 22% of Americans know something about it, and 8% know a lot
- As an experiment, the Economist and YouGov showed a random 50% of respondents a description of some elements of Trump's plan, that under the plan...
- The size of the Ukrainian armed forces would be limited to 600,000 personnel
- Ukraine would not be allowed to join NATO and no NATO forces would be stationed in Ukraine
- $100 billion in frozen Russian assets would be invested in Ukraine with the U.S. to receive 50% of the profits
- Ukraine would withdraw from Donetsk, which would become part of the Russian federation
- Overall, those shown a description of this plan are slightly less likely to approve of how Trump is handling the situation with Russia and Ukraine than those who not shown the plan
- Trump's net approval on this issue — the share who strongly or somewhat approve of his handling minus the share who disapprove — is -17 among those shown Trump's plan, and -10 among those not shown the plan
- Democrats have nearly identical net approval, regardless of whether they've been shown Trump's plan: -67 among those shown the plan, and -66 among those not shown it
- Independents shown the plan are more positive about Trump's handling of the issue than those not shown it: -18 net approval vs. -25
- Among Republicans, however, those shown Trump's plan are markedly less approving of Trump's handling of the Russia-Ukraine issue than those not shown the plan: +38 vs. +57
- The difference between those shown and not shown parts of Trump's plan is particularly stark among Republicans who previously knew nothing about Trump's plan
- Republicans who knew nothing about Trump's plan and not shown the plan are more likely to be positive than negative about how Trump is handling the issue: 44% and 15% disapprove, a net approval of +29
- Those who knew nothing, after being shown the plan, are evenly split in their views of Trump's handling of the issue: 30% approve and 29% disapprove, a net approval of +1
- The 28-point difference in net approval between Republicans shown and not shown Trump's plan among those who knew nothing of the plan compares to a 19-point gap among those who knew a little about the plan and a 14-point difference among those who knew some or a lot about it
- 42% of Americans say Trump tends to support Russia more in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while 12% say he tends to support Ukraine more and 22% say he supports both equally
- Those shown parts of Trump's peace plan are slightly more likely to say he mostly supports Russia than those not shown the plan (45% vs. 40%)
- 56% of Americans say the Russia-Ukraine war is either very (29%) or somewhat (28%) important for U.S. national security, while 16% say it's slightly important and 10% say it's not important at all
- Democrats are more likely to say the Russia-Ukraine war is very or somewhat important (67%) than are Republicans (54%) or Independents (51%)
Learn more about this poll here.
Image: Getty (Elise Blanchard / Stringer)
