President Trump has spent considerable energy lambasting the United Nations, an institution the United States helped create 80 years ago and has shaped ever since. He has derided it as an “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy,” and little more than “a talking shop.” A majority of Americans no longer agree with their president. In a Sept. 2025 global poll commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation, 61% of American respondents agreed that their country should cooperate with others to solve global challenges, even if doing so meant compromising on some national interests.
Only 16% responded with a no. Such American support for international cooperation has only increased. When the same question was posed in the 2026 iteration of the poll, which surveyed more than 35,000 people across 34 countries, support in the U.S. rose by four percentage points to 65%, while the opposition fell by two percentage points to 14%.
American public support for multilateral cooperation in 2026 exceeds that of Western Europe, where it stands at 61%. Despite President Trump’s attacks on the UN, 62% of Americans say they trust the institution—eight percentage points more than last year—while only 30% claim to distrust it. Nearly half of American respondents, 46%, say they comfortable with the UN playing a leading role on the world stage.
Only 21% say they are uncomfortable. As global stability has eroded and peace has grown increasingly fragile, the desire for cooperation across border has increased among Americans. In the same poll, respondents were asked to choose three priorities from a list of 13 global issues: among American respondents, 40% ranked preventing wars and conflicts among their most pressing concerns.
The message to President Trump is clear. For most of the last 80 years, America has acted multilaterally, even during its unipolar moment. Americans do not want the U.S. to act unilaterally in an increasingly multipolar era.
They want their country to practice the politics of consensus building rather than coercion. I joined an initiative involving 100 former prime ministers and presidents from every continent that calls upon today’s leaders to build a stronger basis for cooperation in an increasingly fragmented and multipolar world. On Monday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, many of us came together to endorse core principles that could provide the basis for a new global consensus on solving shared problems and helping those in need.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
