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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2018)
April 25, 2018 The Skanner Page 9 News AP-NORC POLL: Americans Expect Russia Tension Will Get Worse Americans also anxious about China, North Korea By Matthew Pennington and Emily Swanson Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans largely fear the country’s relation- ship with Russia and Chi- na will get worse in the coming year, and despite signs of diplomatic prog- ress with Kim Jong Un on nuclear weapons, nearly half say the same about North Korea. That’s according to a new poll from The As- sociated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that provides insight into the public’s view on the direction of U.S. ties with those key strategic rivals, 15 months after President Donald Trump took of- fice. “ Trump has opened up a whole bucket of worms, and he’s doing it with too many countries all at once “Trump has opened up a whole bucket of worms, and he’s doing it with too many countries all at once,” said John Parker, 70, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “It’s almost like he’s trying to get us into trouble.” The poll found that Americans are most downbeat about the rela- tionship with Russia: 56 percent think it will get worse over the next year, while just 13 percent think it will improve. Even among Republi- cans, more expect the relationship with Russia to get worse than better, 40 percent to 20 per- cent, though another 40 percent expect it to stay about the same. Eric Brammer, 30, an information technology specialist from Roanoke, Virginia, who describes himself as a Democrat, said he expects ten- sions to continue over Russia’s support of the government of Presi- dent Bashar Assad in civil war-wracked Syria, where the U.S., Britain and France last week launched missile strikes against Syrian chemical weapons facilities. Brammer also said that if more allegations of Russian interference in U.S. elections come to light, it will sow more distrust among the American public and worsen the relationship. On China — with which Trump has forged coop- eration against North Korea but drawn sharp differences on trade — some 48 percent expect “ It would be the first U.S.- North Korea summit af- ter six decades of hostil- ity since the Korean War. Despite the promise of the summit, far more Americans think rela- tions with the North Ko- rea will get worse than better, 47 percent to 20 percent. Republicans are more optimistic. Forty percent think that the re- Americans are also largely pessimistic about the state of the country generally. relations to get worse in the next year, while just 17 percent expect things to get better. “The farmers here are worried about trade with China because of the soy- beans, corn and hogs that all go there,” said Doro- thy Jorgensen, a retiree from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, who expects re- lations with the world’s second-largest economy to deteriorate. “If one side raises taxes and the other side does the same, it’s not going to help ei- ther country.” As Trump looks to nar- row the U.S. trade defi- cit, he has threatened to raise U.S. tariffs on up to $150 billion of Chinese goods to counteract what he says are that country’s unfair trade policies. That has fueled fears of a trade war. China has threatened to retaliate with tariffs of its own, including on American agricultural produce. But Marta Vicentini, a retired neurophysiolo- gist from Miami Beach, Florida, said Trump was right to hit back against China over theft of U.S. know-how and trade se- crets and predicted his strategy would work in America’s favor. “They (China) have no alternative but to trade with the U.S.,” she said. Vicentini also supports the Republican presi- dent’s approach toward North Korea. She said the imposition of sanctions is paying off and the young dictator Kim has been brought to the table by fears Trump will re- sort to military force and even a nuclear strike. “He (Kim) is going to grow up and mature and he’s going to realize that he’s playing with fire,” Vi- centini said. Trump is planning to meet with Kim by June, in search of a deal in which North Korea would give up his nuclear weapons. lationship that grew in- creasingly tense last year will improve in the next year. Some 34 percent think it will stay about the same, and just 25 per- cent expect it to worsen. Outside of foreign affairs, 40 percent of Americans approve of the overall job Trump is doing as president, the poll found. That’s about the same percentage as said so a month ago, up slightly from where it’s been for most of the year. Fifty-nine percent now say they disapprove of the job the president is doing. Americans are also largely pessimistic about the state of the country generally. Sixty percent think the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, though a majority of Re- publicans — 67 percent — think it’s headed the right way. The AP-NORC poll of 1,140 adults was conduct- ed April 11-16 using a sam- ple drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amer- iSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representa- tive of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percent- age points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later inter- viewed online or by phone.
