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.