WASHINGTON - With US President Donald Trump’s approval rating already lower than the percentage of people calling for his impeachment and despite his 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.
A fter 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."
