Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Analysis

Exclusive: Americans care most about this issue ...

Exclusive: Americans care most about this issue ...
Paige Fusco
Make us preferred on Google

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 man holds up a Venezuelan flag in front of the sun.

A man holds up a Venezuelan flag while taking part in a march calling for amnesty for political prisoners and to mark Youth Day, in Caracas, Venezuela, February 12, 2026.

REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno
Since last weekend, Washington’s tutelage over Venezuela’s regime after the capture of autocrat Nicolás Maduro in January produced its clearest step yet toward an actual democratic transition: a US-brokered negotiation between the government and a slice of the opposition, opening what could be the first credible path to competitive elections in [...]
Small countries are betting big on AI data centers
Last month, Trinidad and Tobago signed agreements with American tech companies paving the way for them to build data centers in the island nation — the first deal of its kind in the Caribbean. Government officials hailed it as a transformational investment that could position the nation of just 1.5 million at the forefront of the AI boom. But not [...]
Dozens of migrants celebrate having crossed the border between Ceuta and Morocco in Madrid, Spain on July 31, 2026

Dozens of migrants celebrate having crossed the border between Ceuta and Morocco in Madrid, Spain on July 31, 2026, as thousands entered the autonomous city by swimming and on foot, skirting the breakwater that separates Ceuta from Morocco, while border control units recovered the bodies of 16 people in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of foreign nationals found dead in Ceuta’s waters this year to 47.

Marcos Moreno/Europa Press/ABACAPRESS.COM
The images were striking: Last week’s chaotic sea crossing saw an estimated 60,000 migrants from Morocco flood into the tiny Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa, swimming around seawalls and climbing over fences. At least 72 people lost their lives, according to Spain. The unprecedented surge stunned European governments and prompted EU [...]
​US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) speaks during a campaign rally

US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) speaks during a campaign rally in Ferndale, Michigan, U.S., July 25, 2026.

REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
In 2024, roughly 100,000 Michigan Democrats frustrated with the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza voted “uncommitted” in the state’s presidential primary. The protest quickly spread to primaries across the country, like North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, exposing how deeply Israel had become a flashpoint within the [...]