While the Murdoch media – and most of the pontificators writing op eds for the rest of our news outlets – are having conniptions about whether and when Albanese might get a meeting with Trump is all happening at a time when the Australian public have little trust in the US and even less in Donald Trump.

The Lowy Institute released earlier this year selected results from its 2025 report which found that since Trump was inaugurated Australians trust in the US to act responsibly has fallen by 20% with only 36% of the public expressing any level of trust – a new low in Lowy Institute polling. Almost two thirds of the public say they hold not very much trust, or no trust at all, in the US to act responsibly.

Back in 2006 60% of Australians trusted the US to act responsibly either somewhat or a great deal. The results since have been a bit up and down, with 2011 result being at a peak – probably mainly due to the popularity of Barack Obama who was elected for his second term then. But in the years when the US was at war with all the countries which hadn’t been involved in the 2001 attacks on New York, and cuddled closer to the Saudis whose citizens did it, Australian confidence sank year by year down to a new low of only 36% trusting the US to act responsibly in the world.

When asked by the Lowy Institute about the importance of the US to our security the results have varied over the years but with overwhelming majorities regularly regarding the alliance as very or fairly important. However, starting in 2021 when the alliance was regarded as very important our national security by 60% it has fallen to just below 50% – 49%.

When it comes to Trump’s urging to spend more on defence there was an even split – 49% approving and 49% disapproving. This is hardly overwhelming for Australian governments wanting to ramp up spending and buy nuclear powered submarines.

The disparity in attitudes to AUKUS are an interesting complement to the Lowy data. According to crikey older Australians are much more likely to feel positive about AUKUS than younger ones according to research by the 2024 United States Studies Centre. Crikey reported that Australians aged 65 and older are about twice as likely to ‘strongly agree’ it’s a good idea for the country to have nuclear-powered submarines.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents in that age group said they strongly agreed, and 39% said they agreed with the statement. Among people aged 18-34, just 14% said they strongly agreed, and 24% said they agreed. In the 35-64 age group, those percentages were 17% and 34%.  Just 5% of Australians older than 65 ‘strongly disagree, with 11% of 18 to 34-year-olds. Thus, those who will still be around when the submarines arrive (if they ever do) will have long had their ashes spread somewhere or other.

Other than the split of opinion on defence spending every other Trump policy is regarded negatively by Australians. 56% opposed mass deportations of undocumented migrants currently living in the US – a finding that the shade of Al Grassby would celebrate and Scott Morrison would be praying the finding was wrong.

64 % opposed cuts in spending on foreign aid; 74% disapproved of negotiating a Ukraine deal which forced Ukrainians to accept a loss of territory; 74% disapproved of the US withdrawing from climate change agreements and a tad more (76%) disapproved of the US withdrawal from WHO.

As for using tariffs to pressure (bully?) countries to comply with Trump’s objectives it was disapproved of by 81%.

The biggest disapproval rating (89%) was to the question about Trump pressuring Denmark to sell or hand over the self-governed territory of Greenland and the US.

Trump wants to take over Greenland because it has potentially huge strategic significance – particularly when climate change (which Trump believes is a hoax) – could make the north-western passage negotiable all year round.

There is also, of course, a demented belief among some Americans that Vikings crossed westward across the North Atlantic in the 10^th and 11^th centuries and then discovered North America and got as far as Minnesota in the 14^th Century. It is true that Norse people reached what is now Greenland and the settlement survived for five centuries. Similarly, there was a Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Canada.

Could Trump have heard some person, even more deranged than him, promulgating the myth and it festered into a belief in the need to take over Greenland. Implausible? Perhaps a theory no more outlandish than other daily Trump social media posts. But, if he changes his rationale for taking Greenland over, we know where the idea came from.