Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Analysis

Exclusive: Americans care most about this issue ...

Exclusive: Americans care most about this issue ...
Paige Fusco

Polls reflect an American electorate split over who should become the 47th president. So GZERO decided to dig deeper and partnered with Echelon Insights for some exclusive polling to find out what Americans think should be the first geopolitical priority for the next US president, regardless of who ends up in the Oval Office in January.


Our survey of 1,005 voters found that across the political spectrum, a majority of Americans believe the Israel-Gaza war is the most pressing issue for the White House, followed by the Ukraine-Russia war, US-China relations, and then climate change.

Interestingly, climate change was the second most pressing issue for Democrats, with 26% of respondents saying it should be the top priority. Meanwhile, among Republicans, only 5% of respondents answered it was the biggest issue. The Ukraine-Russia war, which Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to end within 24 hours of taking office, came in second among Republicans’ top priorities, at 24%, compared to third for Democrats, at 18%.

This could be a reflection that Republicans share Trump’s belief that immediate action needs to be taken to end the Ukraine war (even if that comes at the expense of Ukraine), whereas Democrats are more satisfied with the continuation of the current administration’s support for Kyiv.

We also polled Americans on who they trusted more to be alone in a room with Vladimir Putin and found that the responses were almost as equally divided as the polls on who should be the next president, as you can see below:

More For You

​A woman cries as she visits of a war memorial site near the Iraqi border, 1,365 km (854 miles) southwest of Tehran in Khoozestan province, March 16, 2009.

A woman cries as she visits of a war memorial site near the Iraqi border, 1,365 km (854 miles) southwest of Tehran in Khoozestan province, March 16, 2009.

REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
As missiles rain down on the Middle East, concerns about a humanitarian emergency are beginning to mount.Hundreds of thousands of people have already been displaced by fighting in Iran and Lebanon, setting in motion what could become yet another major refugee crisis in the region. The European Union’s asylum agency warned that a displacement of [...]
​Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 6, 2026.

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, on March 6, 2026.

REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Overnight, Israel’s military shifted part of its focus to a new front, one that isn’t Iran: it pummeled the Lebanese capital of Beirut with airstrikes, and issued more evacuation warnings across areas of the country controlled by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. “The objective is to disarm Hezbollah,” Nimrod Novik, a fellow at the Israel [...]
​People attend the funeral of a person who was killed in alleged Pakistani airstrikes, in the Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province.

People attend the funeral of a person who was killed in alleged Pakistani airstrikes, in the Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province.

While Iran fights in a new war against Israel and the United States, its neighbors to the east have been drawn into a conflict of their own. Growing violence between Pakistan and Afghanistan has escalated into “open war,” according to Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. The United Nations says nearly 66,000 people have been [...]
​Women prepare a makeshift memorial in tribute to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on a street, after he was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Saturday, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 4, 2026.

Women prepare a makeshift memorial in tribute to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on a street, after he was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Saturday, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 4, 2026.

Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Over the weekend, the United States and Israel pulled off one of the most operationally impressive military campaigns in recent memory. In the span of 48 hours, they killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, decapitated much of the country's political and military leadership, destroyed its air defenses, decimated its naval assets, and [...]