4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
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President Trump raised eyebrows when he told the New York Times that there was only one thing that could stop him on the global stage: his own morality.
So what do Americans think about the moral standing of the United States? Well, a new NPR-Ipsos poll finds Americans still want the U.S. to be a moral leader in the world — but far fewer think it actually is.
Senior Political Editor and Correspondent Domenico Montanaro shares more from the poll, and Senior International Affairs Correspondent Jackie Northam helps make sense of what it means globally.
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| 0:00.0 | The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponent is that our plan will put America first. |
| 0:10.8 | When Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, he promised a focus on domestic issues. |
| 0:19.0 | Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. |
| 0:23.6 | He offered a vision for American foreign policy, and he vowed to keep the U.S. out of global conflicts. |
| 0:30.1 | We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change. But in his second administration, a shift. Trump has |
| 0:42.7 | ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. We are going to run the country until such time |
| 0:48.9 | as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. Threatened Iran for its suppression of recent protests. |
| 0:57.7 | If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit |
| 1:01.8 | very hard by the United States. |
| 1:04.0 | Talked about annexing Greenland. |
| 1:06.1 | We need Greenland from a national security situation. |
| 1:10.7 | It's so strategic. Trump has launched military strikes |
| 1:14.6 | on terror targets in Yemen, Syria, Nigeria, while threatening to annex Canada, retake the Panama |
| 1:21.8 | Canal, and more. There's no question that in his second term, Donald Trump is entirely unbound and he's eager to throw America's weight around in the world. |
| 1:32.5 | Stuart Patrick is a specialist on world order and international cooperation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. |
| 1:40.0 | He says Trump is waving aside rules-based international order in his effort to ensure U.S. dominance. |
| 1:48.1 | And that's worrying Americans. |
| 1:49.6 | According to a new NPR Ipsos poll, nearly half of Americans say Washington should stay out of other countries' affairs. |
| 1:58.8 | And while the poll also finds that Americans want the U.S. |
| 2:02.9 | to be a moral leader in the world, |
| 2:05.2 | far fewer actually think it is. |
| 2:09.2 | Consider this. |
... |
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