The charts above reflect the results of a recent Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between January 21st and 23rd of a random national sample of 1,500 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 points.
It shows that the beliefs of a vast majority of Americans are at odds with the perception of Donald Trump when it comes to Russia. Americans consider Russia to be more an enemy than a friend by a huge 51 point margin. But they don't think Donald Trump agrees with them. By a 15 point margin, the public thinks Trump views Russia as a friend -- not an enemy.
That perception is not without merit. Immediately upon being sworn in, Trump tried to remove sanctions on Russia and return property to them that had been seized by the U.S. government. He did this in spite of his own intelligence agencies telling him that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election. It is without doubt that Russia hacked Democratic e-mails and provided that information to the Trump campaign, Russia also hacked into the voter rolls of more than half of the states (although it is not known whether they were able to alter any of those voter rolls). It took the U.S. Congress to stop Trump's unwarranted giveaway to Russia.
While Republican members of Congress still won't admit the Trump administration colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election, they agree with Democrats that Russia did try to affect the 2016 election -- and that they should be punished for that (to protect the sanctity of U.S. elections). That's why both the House (419 to 3) and the Senate (98 to 2) voted overwhelmingly to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Trump complained about the new sanctions, but did finally sign the bill. However, after several months, his administration still had not levied those new sanctions against Russia. And this week, Trump said he would NOT be imposing those sanctions. He said that just the threat of the sanctions had deterred Russia, and it was not necessary to actually impose the sanctions.
That is a ludicrous assertion. The Russians have not been deterred at all, and now thanks to Trump, they won't be punished either. Members of Trump's own administration know this. His CIA director, Mike Pompeo, said he expects the Russians to try to interfere in the coming elections. He said:
“I have every expectation that they will continue to try and do that. . . . “This threat is not going to go away. The Russians have been at this a long time, and I fully expect they'll continue to be at it.” The sad fact is that Donald Trump has once again bowed to Russia -- without any justification (and in opposition to the wishes of Congress). Why is he doing this? Is he really too ignorant to understand that Russia is not our friend, and that they are playing him for a fool? Is he afraid that if he opposes Russia's wishes, they will cut off the funding for his business enterprises and call in his debts (which would bring his "empire" crashing down)? Do the Russians have evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Trump, or of his perverted play with Russian prostitutes -- evidence they are using to blackmail him? If even one of those reasons is true, that should concern the citizens of this country -- because it poses a danger to the country. Personally, I'm beginning to believe all three are true.
