Despite
U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of his German counterpart
Angela Merkel's performance, a majority of Americans say that they have
more confidence in Merkel as a leader than they do in Trump, a new Pew
Research survey said on Wednesday.
According
to the survey, 56 percent of Americans have more confidence in Merkel,
while 46 percent say they have more confidence in Trump.
However,
the survey found that there is a sharp partisan divide on the issue,
with 64 percent of Democrats trusting Merkel more than Trump while 89
percent of Republicans have more faith in Trump.
The
survey was published days before Trump and Merkel were reportedly set
to meet on Thursday before the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Trump and Merkel had a long history of disagreement that was previously focused on the two leaders' view on immigration.
During
his campaign and also after winning the presidency, Trump repeatedly
blasted Merkel for making a "catastrophic mistake" with her open door
policy on refugees, while Merkel did not shy away from criticizing Trump
in the wake of his travel ban order that sought to temporarily ban
travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries in January.
After
Trump announced his decision to pull the United States out of the
landmark Paris Agreement last month, Merkel became one of the most vocal
critics of Trump's abandonment of the climate treaty.
"We
will and must take on this existential challenge," said Merkel in an
address before German parliament on Thursday. "We cannot and will not
wait until every last person in the world can be convinced of climate
change by scientific evidence."
