As I've mentioned before, one of the major components of Donald Trump's world-view is that other nations are gaining at our expense: "beating" us on trade, taking aid from us and not giving anything in return. This general view is also shared by much of the public. Here are the results from a survey question asking whether "other countries generally treat the United States about as fairly as we treat them" or "other countries often take unfair advantage of the United States."
As fairly Take advantage
1994 19% 78%
1999 24% 70%
2018 42% 51%
2021 46% 52%
Between 1999 and 2018, partisan divisions became larger, as Democrats moved towards the "treat fairly" position. Presumably, this was a reaction against Donald Trump: when the "take unfair advantage" position became more strongly associated with the Republican party, Democrats turned against it. However, it's not entirely a matter of partisanship: even after controlling for party, more educated people are more likely to say that other countries treat us fairly. The percentages choosing "treat us fairly":*
Dem-1999 Dem-2021 Rep-1999 Rep-2021
No college 19% 52% 18% 19%
Some college 30% 64% 21% 18%
College graduate 48% 77% 32% 25%
In 1999, there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans among less educated people. Between 1999 and 2021, Democrats moved strongly towards the "treat fairly" position; Republicans stayed about the same, and Republican college graduates even had a small shift towards "take unfair advantage." As a result, Democrats are more divided by education than Republicans are.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
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