Public Opinion on Trump’s ‘America First’ Foreign Policy

President Donald Trump’s first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017.
President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. AP Photo/Jon Elswick
President Donald Trump’s first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017.
President Donald Trump's first proposed budget, released by the Office of Management and Budget, is photographed in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. AP Photo/Jon Elswick

Public Opinion on Trump’s ‘America First’ Foreign Policy

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Donald Trump won the White House following a campaign promising to put “America First” in its international affairs. The policy represents a major departure from the last seven decades of American foreign policy and stands to reshape America’s global role at a time of growing geopolitical instability. 

The 2017 Chicago Council Survey, conducted six months into the Trump administration, will reveal the appeal of these ideas among the American public. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in partnership with Worldview, convened a panel of experts to examine what the survey findings say about public attitudes toward key foreign policy questions in the Trump era. 

This collaborative program was recorded live at the Council on October 20th, 2017. The panel, moderated by Jerome McDonnell, included Ivo H. Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Michael Desch, professor and director of the international security center at the University of Notre Dame, and Dina Smeltz the Council’s senior fellow on public opinion and foreign policy.