Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2025
Department
Political Science
Abstract
Objective: This study examines how political elites influence public opinion on international organizations (IOs), focusing on the impact of President Donald Trump's rhetoric on attitudes toward the World Health Organization (WHO), UN, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Methods: Using data from the 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES), we analyze the relationship between Trump support, political knowledge, and public evaluations of these IOs.
Results: We find a significant “Trump effect” on attitudes toward all three IOs. Trump supporters exhibited significantly lower evaluations of the WHO, UN, and NATO. Moreover, highly knowledgeable Trump supporters were even more likely than their less knowledgeable counterparts to reduce their support for these organizations in response to Trump's rhetoric.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that highly knowledgeable Trump supporters are more attentive to his political messages and better equipped to process and absorb them, leading to much more reduced support for IOs. This highlights the role of political elites in shaping public opinion on international institutions, particularly among politically engaged individuals
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Social Science Quarterly
Volume
106
Issue
3
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Xu, P., Küssau, N., Rundlett, A., Mark, B. S. Fowler, C., & Krueger, B. (2025). Political Elites and Attitudes Toward International Organizations in the Trump Era. Social Science Quarterly, 106(3), e70012. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.70012
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.70012
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.