These Three Foreign Leaders Have Higher Approval Ratings Than Biden Among Americans

President Joe Biden has some competition for the hearts and minds of Americans, but not just at home. In a recent survey, Biden had only the fourth-highest amount of confidence from Americans, falling below three other foreign leaders.

On Wednesday, Pew Research published a survey that looked into how much confidence Americans felt in world leaders. Sitting at the top of the list was not Biden, but Ukraine’s President Voldomyr Zelensky, who earned positive reviews from a net total of 72% of American adults. Following Zelensky came France’s President Emmanuel Macron with 55% approval and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz who followed closely behind at 53%.

At the bottom of the list was Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who only 6% of Americans said they have confidence in. China’s President Xi Jinping scored higher than Putin, but only ended up with 15% approval among Americans.

It may come as little surprise that Zelensky has scored the highest in the poll. The embattled Ukrainian leader, who has remained in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv even as Russia’s military lay just outside the city, has earned the praise of millions for the eloquent and defiant defense of his nation.

When the data was broken down, Pew found that there were few clear dividing lines in support for Zelensky when metrics like political party affiliation, age, and gender were accounted for. This to some extent is reflected in the mostly full-throated support expressed by U.S. politicians, who continue to urge Biden to stand behind Zelensky against Russia.

Yet partisanship appears to be the sharpest divide in how Americans view every other world leader on the list, including Biden.

According to Pew, 48% of Americans expressed confidence in Biden, a higher score than the average 41% approval rating recorded by Project FiveThirtyEight’s composite poll. In a second poll by Reuters, the partisan divide was vast with 75% of Democrats approving of Biden while 84% of Republicans disapproved.

On foreign leaders, Zelensky’s approval was higher among Democrats than Republicans at 80% and 67% positive respectively.

Putin had the narrowest partisan differences with only 5% and 7% approval among Democrats and Republicans. However, on the eve of the invasion on Feb. 24, Putin was found to still poll higher than Biden among Republicans, according to Fox News.

Macron and Scholz, who lead two of the United States' major allies, each were viewed more positively by Democrats than Republicans. Democrats appraised Macron positively with a 69% approval rating and Scholz received a slightly smaller 65% approval. In contrast, 41% of Republicans surveyed said they approved of the two European leaders positively.