Poll Shows Americans Believe Trump Sympathizes with Russian Invasion

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has long been criticized for his refusal to publicly oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now that Putin has invaded Ukraine, more Americans believe that Trump sympathizes more Russia rather than the country it's attacking.

In late February, Trump was criticized for praising Putin's justification for invading Ukraine. On March 10, Trump refused to call Putin "evil" on national TV. Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton even said on March 9 that during Trump's presidency, Trump was "doing a lot of [Putin's] work for him" by trying to remove the U.S. from the North American Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western alliance seeking to limit Russia's military expansion.

The poll's results, released Friday, found that 37 percent of respondents believe that Trump sympathizes with Russia, and only 22 percent believe that Trump sympathizes more with Ukraine.

Numerous political analysts have noted Trump's repeated praise of Putin and his reluctance to publicly criticize him during Trump's 2016 election campaign and presidency.

Trump's actions may have led to 42 percent of respondents to say that, during his presidency, Trump was too friendly toward Russia. Roughly 37 percent said President Trump's approach was about right, and only five percent believed that President Trump was too hostile towards Russia.