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A majority of Britons view the US as a “serious threat” to security after the election of President Donald Trump, who has referred to himself as a “peacemaker” and aspires to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Seventy-two per cent of people said America posed a “very” or “quite serious” risk to global peace in April. This is double the 36 per cent of people last autumn, before Trump was elected, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey published on Wednesday.
Only Russia — at 90 per cent — was perceived as a greater threat, putting the US ahead of Israel and Iran, which were both viewed as a security concern by 67 per cent of the British public.
Trump campaigned on a promise to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has fanned the flames of both conflicts since taking office for a second time.
The survey reflects public perceptions before the Israel-Iran war broke out and the US launched strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, prompting a tentative ceasefire.
Gianfranco Addario, research director at the National Centre for Social Research, which published the data, said Trump’s election had driven public views of America as a threat to levels “never seen before”.
The question has been asked twice before 2024, with concerns peaking at 47 per cent in 2005 following the US invasion of Iraq.
Trump campaigned on a promise to keep America out of any new wars and said in his second inaugural address that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker”. He also has aspirations of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
The latest BSA survey, an annual study that has been running since 1983, was conducted between September and October 2024.
A record 9 per cent of respondents — surveyed before the UK government’s decision to boost the military budget — said defence should be the top priority for extra state spending, compared with just 2 per cent when the question was last asked in 2021.
Addario said the shift in attitudes was likely to persist long-term, adding that the global geopolitical situation had deteriorated since the end of last year.
Public support for cutting the welfare bill and reducing government spending and taxation rose, although these views are still supported by only a minority of people — 11 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.
The proportion of people who said spending on disability benefits should increase dipped below 50 per cent for the first time in 2024, but was still four times higher than share who wanted to cut it.
Sir Keir Starmer’s government has pushed ahead with plans to overhaul disability support prompting a backlash among Labour MPs, who seek to block the contentious welfare bill.
Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at NatCen, said the data suggested that pursuing growth over tax rises would “not necessarily be the easier path” for Labour as it tries to fix public services in a tight fiscal environment.
“The political difficulty with these policies is there are potentially identifiable winners and losers, and it is often the losers who shout the loudest,” he added.
