Zelenskyy saw the voting bump after Trump. What about other world leaders? – National
The attack on world leaders by U.S. President Donald Trump gave many of them a rating of approval because allies believe experts are talking about the “external threat” posed by the Trump administration.
According to recent polls, leaders in recent months and years, including outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his current Liberal Party and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyy, have rebounded in popularity since Trump returned to the White House in January.
“Donald Trump rallied around his leaders among the opposition,” said Matthew Lebo, a political science professor at Western University.
“What he seems to want is what he wants, and it's to destroy people like Trudeau and Zelenskyy.”
Although Zelenskyy has long enjoyed support from most Ukrainians, his recognition rate has started from 80% at the time to 60% in November last year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Other polls conducted in early 2025 have put Zelenskyy below 60%.
Trump seems to have stopped this slide.
A poll released last week by the Kiev Institute of International Sociology showed that between February 14 and March 3, Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and achieved the trust that ultimately led to Zelenskyy's trust (57% to 67% between Ukrainians) in a disastrous Oval Office meeting between the two leaders.
Another poll of European leaders by the Ukrainian rating team showed that Zelenskyy was the same in late February.
The same poll found that the highest jump in approval ratings since last year was French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who recently tried to hold leadership positions in support of Ukraine.
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Both Macron and Starmer are relatively unpopular at home, but they saw a small increase in the polls released last week. The IFOP survey of Ouest-France has brought Macron's popularity to 7 points in the past month to 31%, while Starmer's net approval has risen by 10 points in the observer's new perspective Poll, minus 23 points.
At the same time, Trump's annexation of Canada as the 51st state in the United States also raised the fate of Trudeau and liberals.
An IPSOS poll conducted last month for global news – in the liberal election Mark Carney has led the Conservatives for the first time since 2021. Trudeau's own recognition rating jumped from 22% last month to 34% last month as he prepared to leave his position.
According to a poll by El Financiero last week, Trump’s tariff threat also led to Mexico’s popular president Claudia Sheinbaum’s highest recognition rate ever: a staggering 85%.
“In the approval rating, we call it a rally “around the flag”, which is usually a time of national threat or crisis… solidarity or as a patriotic act toward external threats,” Lebow said.
He said recent examples include the surge in approval rates for former U.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, and the popularity of his father George HW Bush during the Gulf War in the 1990s – a far cry from the external threat of a Trump pose.
One party that has not seen polls in Trump's attack is the Democratic Party of the United States
A Quinnipiac poll last month found that Congressional opposition parties were at an all-time low with only 21% support, while Republicans received a record 40% approval.
Will Trump bring voters back to the incumbent?
Trump was one of many world leaders who won the election last year, with a wave of resentment against voters who hope to change. Starmer is another, while Macron and the ruling parties in South Korea and Japan see the collapse of their parliamentary majority and alliances.
Even though the Germans still voted for the new administration in February elections – a historic blow to the party of ousted Prime Minister Olaf Scholz and raised an alternative to the German far-right, fear and anger at Trump helped Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford Cruise to be re-elected later.
Whether Ford's success can be repeated remains to be seen. It would be a big test for Carney, who vowed Sunday night after winning the liberal leader as Trump's prime minister.
IPSOS CEO Darrell Bricker said polls show that this is where Carney appears in front of voters, not his economic goodwill and policy record.
“Donald Trump has become the center of the universe, not only Americans, but also for citizens around the world,” he said in an interview.
“His impact on the world environment will have an impact on people’s perception of their own domestic political situation.”
Brick added that this will include reevaluating politicians who share Trump’s populist rhetoric, and voters have now seen Trump in action.
In his victory speech on Sunday, Carney said conservative leader Pierre Poilievre “worships on Donald Trump’s altar” and that if elected Prime Minister, he would “kneel in front of him and not stand in front of him.”
Although Poilievre was named the best leader in dealing with Trump in the IPSOS survey last month, 28% say so, and that's 31% say Conservative leaders will “overturn and accept everything President Trump has asked for.”
Poilievre responded to some Trump's stance on issues such as cutting public service efforts and government spending, but did not adopt others, such as suppression of immigration.
“The question comes down to whether you want a politician who acts and sounds like Trump on the campaign to manage the way Donald Trump is now managing it,” Brick said.
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
