CV NEWS FEED // Following the Feb. 28 confrontation between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Ukrainian-American relations and the ongoing war with Russia, a survey suggests that U.S. citizens generally support Trump and Vance’s positions on the war.
A Wick poll asked 1,000 registered voters across the US to watch an 11-minute video of the conflict in the Oval Office between the three leaders and respond to a series of questions to provide their thoughts on the interaction. Prior to watching the video, the majority of the same sample said that Ukraine needs to negotiate to end the war, and a similar amount said that Ukraine should make territorial concessions to bring about a treaty.
Respondents gave Zelenskyy a positive image rating before watching the video, with 35.4% reporting a very favorable image of him, 34.6% saying the same of Trump, and 29.8% approving of Vance.
After watching the video, respondents were fairly evenly divided in their opinions of the three leaders’ conduct during the Oval Office meeting. About six in 10 respondents approved of Zelenskyy’s behavior in the meeting and roughly five in 10 approved of Trump’s and Vance’s.
However, nearly half of respondents said that Trump and Vance had stronger arguments for compromise and diplomacy with Russia, with just 37% approving more of Zelenskyy’s unwillingness to compromise. About 14% said the two arguments were equal.
During the conflict, Zelenskyy said that despite the presence of an ocean between Europe and the U.S. to mitigate the effects of war, America would eventually “feel it in the future.” Trump took offense to his comment, as did 62% of respondents.
More respondents considered Trump and Vance’s desires for peace to be authentic (49%) than those who did not (about 42%). Americans also overwhelmingly believed that the U.S., not Ukraine, has the negotiation leverage in the relationship between the two countries to end the war with Russia.
Finally, respondents rated their views of Trump’s statement posted to social media after the conflict.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2025
About five in 10 rated the statement as excellent or very good, with roughly two in 10 rating it good or fair. Roughly one in 10 rated it as poor.
Wick co-founder David Burrell told Mark Halperin on “The Diner” that Wick recruits and pays people to take surveys and makes sure surveys include the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats as those who voted in the last election.