Majority Of Americans Don’t Believe Trump Can End Wars In Ukraine, Gaza, But…

Most Americans are doubtful that President Donald Trump will be able to help bring an end to the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, despite the US being the largest military supporter of both Ukraine and Israel, which naturally would give Trump potential influence over Kyiv and Tel Aviv. But the reality is for all the talk of peace, the White House has not used this powerful lever (that is, cutting off the arms pipeline and billions in aid).

The CAPS-Harris poll is a joint project of Harris Poll and the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University. It conducted a fresh survey on a range of issues facing the American public and politics at the national and international levels.

The survey showed that 59% of respondents believe Trump would be unsuccessful in resolving the war in Ukraine, while 64% say he would be unable to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza.

But despite this broad skepticism concerning the end-result, two-thirds of Americans still support Trump’s initiative to negotiate a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

The survey indicated it was conducted online within the United States on August 20-21 – among 2,025 registered voters, and so it was days after Trump’s historic summit with Putin in Alaska. The polling shows that Americans saw the effort of direct US-Russia talks in a positive light.

So far, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has firmly rejected any territorial compromises, and there’s no indication that the Trump White House has piled much pressure on him to do so.

But Trump is pushing for NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine, which the Kremlin is in turn rejecting this (assuming it involves Western boots on the ground). Responsible Statecraft describes:

Rather than seeking security for all, Europe is still seeking partial security, only for Ukraine. This short-sightedness stems from the desire to punish Russia, which argues that it is only defending its national interests.

It is telling that, toward the end of their joint press conference, Putin said he agreed with Trump’s claim that this war could have been prevented if Trump had been president. Many saw this as a throw-away line designed to ingratiate himself to Trump, but I believe that Putin was remarking on how different Trump’s approach to the conflict is from that of his predecessor. While Biden saw NATO as an unvarnished force for good; Trump appears to appreciate that it can also be seen as a threat, especially by those who have been excluded from it.

As for the other major raging conflict, the same poll found that most Americans believe there is a famine occurring in Gaza but that they hold Hamas responsible.

This is certainly not a long-term solution, but likely recipe for continual escalation…

NATO now ‘funding ENTIRE war’ in Ukraine

Trump explains his strategy – US no longer the donor, just the dealer

Either way, Zelensky gets what he wants pic.twitter.com/r7QhUT5huA

— RT (@RT_com) August 26, 2025

International human rights organizations, and the Palestinian side, have frequently accused Israel of deliberately creating famine conditions through its military campaign and blockade of Gaza. The American public has of late (as well as the mainstream media) grown more critical of Israel’s actions, but both sides of the political aisle and population tend to remain 'pro-Israel’.