Trump speaks, Republicans follow and Democrats flee

President Donald Trump's trip to the NATO summit featured him calling out US allies for not spending enough on defense and accusing Germany of being "a captive of Russia." It ended with a commitment to the organization, but not before a lot of criticism. Trump has criticized the organization before, but now that he has a platform as President, people are listening.

Posted 3:42 p.m. Jul 12, 2018 — Updated 3:42 p.m. Jul 12, 2018

Grace Sparks (CNN)

(CNN) — President Donald Trump's trip to the NATO summit featured him calling out US allies for not spending enough on defense and accusing Germany of being "a captive of Russia." It ended with a commitment to the organization, but not before a lot of criticism. Trump has criticized the organization before, but now that he has a platform as President, people are listening.

Democrats seem to grow fonder of the things Trump dislikes. And Republicans follow his lead.

Republican approval of NATO had been improving -- it was up from 39% in 2013 to 52% in 2016 before Trump took office. But by 2017, the last year for which data is available and after Trump's NATO criticism started, favorability of NATO was down to 47%. Stay tuned to see if that trend continues after his chaotic appearance this week.

Even more striking is that as Republicans have turned against NATO, Democrats have warmed to it. Their approval was at 58% in 2016 and had jumped 20 percentage points in 2017.

NATO isn't the only example of the Trump years changing people's minds about things.

Issues that didn't used to be partisan have become so as of 2016-17.

Take NAFTA, another favorite punching back of the President's as he tries to renegotiate the trade deal that binds the US, Canada and Mexico. Views of NAFTA have also shifted since Trump became President.

In 1997, Gallup showed 37% of Americans who thought that the North American Free Trade Agreement is good for the US. Of those, 33% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans agreed. Now, two-thirds of Democrats say NAFTA is good, compared to only 22% of Republicans.

The FBI, which Trump has criticized as part of his effort to undermine the Russia investigation, didn't used to be an organization that caused a partisan divide. It certainly does now, although its overall approval remains over 50%. According to Gallup, 58% of Americans said that the FBI is doing an excellent or good job. It's actually the same level of support in both 2014 and 2018. But a closer investigation shows a great divergence and a shift.

In 2014, 60% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans thought that the FBI was doing an excellent or good job. Now, only half of Republicans agree (down 13 points) compared to 69% of Democrats (up 9).

The changes in opinion are not always permanent. Between 2014 and 2018, Republicans had a huge jump in favorability on Russian President Vladimir Putin -- from 13% in 2014 to 23% in 2017 -- and now, they're back down to 14%.

Even Democrats experienced some turbulence, with their numbers on Putin moving from 6% favorability, to 11%, and back down to 6%. Of course, these numbers are still fantastically low, not many people like Putin. Trump's openness to the foreign leader and desire to paint him in a more flattering light than he has been in the past has clearly created to paths for the parties to follow.

Another strong competitor for "lowest-rated foreign leader," is North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un who has become frenemies with Trump in the last two years of his presidency. According to CNN's polling, Kim had a 1% favorability rating in 2014, with the same among Republicans, and only 2% among Democrats. In June 2018, after his summit with Trump and Trump's subsequent praise of Kim, his rating has moved up to 9% favorability, 4% among Democrats, and a surprising 12% for Republicans. For someone so low, 12% is high.

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