Perceptions of a Foreign Leader: Donald Trump, Democratic Identity, and the Reconfiguration of Traditional Geopolitical Alignment
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study focuses on the relationship between attitudes to the American President, democratic identity and cultural identification. The Czech Republic served as a case study because its geography and history placed it at the intersection of Western and Eastern Europe.A two-wave national quota panel in Czechia (N = 977 matched respondents) was used to assess attitudes toward Donald Trump before (August 2024) and after his re-election (April 2025). A four-point rating scale included positive, neutral or mixed, and negative categories, supplemented by open-ended questions. Stability and change in attitudes were examined along with relationship to democratic identity, cultural identification, perceived geopolitical threats, and religiosity.The higher order typology based on ratings across both waves comprised six categories: Consistently Negative (n = 326), Positive Shift (n = 178), Negative Shift (n = 125), Consistently Mixed (n = 119), Consistently Positive (n = 63), and Consistently Neutral (n = 63). Negative evaluations were the most common and stable. Positive change typically reflected shifts from negative to mixed evaluations; full reversals were rare (n = 3).Respondents Consistently Negative toward Trump identified more strongly with Western culture and democratic Europe, placed greater importance on living in a democracy, more likely perceived Russia as a threat, less likely perceived Ukrainian migrants as a threat, and reported lower religiosity. Consistently positive respondents showed a contrasting profile, including weaker identification with the West and with democratic Europe and stronger identification with Eastern civilization/Slavic culture. Respondents whose evaluations of Trump improved did not display coherent profiles, suggesting a pragmatic reconsideration. The findings indicate a significant relationship between attitudes toward a foreign leader and broader social identities and geopolitical worldviews. In this Central European case, they suggest a significant reconfiguration of the traditional geopolitical alignment in which an American president represented the democratic West: commitment to democracy was instead associated with negative attitudes toward Trump.
Source: PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204894464