Ukraine

I mean, plenty of people are. But I think you've got about four groups here:

1. Supporters. These people are angry at the world and feel like it's ripped them off and that Trump is gonna make things better.

2. Means-to-an-end types. These guys probably would rather not, all else held equal, have Trump saying Trump things, but if it gives them power to get what they want through -- e.g. tax policy changes, labor regulations, slashing government services, etc -- it's an acceptable trade. I think that a considerable portion of Republican Party politicians fit into this camp. It's not that Trump doing this is desirable, but it's that he's managed to get voters to give them power to do what they want...and those voters probably in aggregate don't actually want their policies and would not actually otherwise vote them the political power to do what they want.

   In this country, Mr. Bentley, the man who gives victory in battle is prized beyond every other man.

Prince Feisal, Lawrence of Arabia

3. People who are indeed embarrassed.

4. People who don't really think or care or often know all that much about the outside world. They're just off doing their thing. Go back to 2014, and here are a bunch of Americans asked to locate Ukraine on a world map:

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/07/the-less-americans-know-about-ukraines-location-the-more-they-want-u-s-to-intervene/

   https://archive.is/Lr0Ez

   

   Like, most people in the US really don't care that much about the international stage; it doesn't usually play a huge role in domestic politics. Most people don't have a great handle on what NATO is, what exactly the UN is, where most countries in Europe are, aside from maybe a handful of major countries. And once the Cold War ended, the American public's attention to Europe fell off:

   https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/05/08/americans-opinions-of-nato/

   Americans have a varying level of knowledge about where NATO members are located, the organization’s central focus and Ukraine’s nonmember status. A majority (56%) can correctly identify Europe and North America as the two regions from which the alliance draws membership. And about half (51%) recognize promoting the security of its members as a central tenet of the alliance. Fewer (41%) are able to correctly identify Ukraine as a nation that is not a member of NATO.

   Overall, 30% of Americans answered all three NATO knowledge questions correctly. About a fifth each answered two correctly (19%) or one correctly (20%). And 31% of U.S. adults did not answer any question correctly (including the share who chose “Not sure” at least once alongside incorrect answers).

   Americans ages 65 and older are 20 percentage points more likely than those ages 18 to 29 to answer all three NATO knowledge questions correctly (38% vs. 18%). Previous Center research has found that older adults tend to have more knowledge of international affairs than their younger counterparts.

   Americans with more education are more likely than those with less to answer all three questions correctly: Half of those with a postgraduate education gave three correct answers, compared with 17% of those with a high school education or less.

   Notably, Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to answer all three questions correctly.

   People who knew more about NATO tended to have different views of the alliance than those who did not know as much about it. For example, 73% of those who answered all three quiz questions correctly believe the U.S. benefits from NATO membership, compared with 57% of those who answered no questions correctly.