Donald Trump’s European trip began this morning in Warsaw, Poland, where he briefly met with Poland’s president, held a brief joint press conference–at which, incredibly for an American president on foreign soil, he took swipes at American institutions such as the media and the intelligence community as well as a former president, Barack Obama–and spoke to a cheering crowd at the site of the Warsaw Uprising during WWII.
It likely will be the last cheering crowd he sees this week, unless Angela Merkel, generally considered the Leader of the Free World since Trump’s abdication of the position, mimics the actions of Poland’s president and buses in thousands of paid, cheering rally-goers who were given a paid day-off to attend.
Foreign leaders have figured out how to play The Donald, haven’t they?
Ms. Merkel, who has a genuine distaste for and distrust in President Trump, is unlikely to order up a few thousand rally-goers or bathe the buildings of Hamburg in projected images of The Grifter, a la the laughable scene in Riyadh. Indeed, given Trump’s dismal favorable ratings among the German public–he is at a robust 11%, compared to President Obama’s 86% at the end of his presidency–one guesses that he will be kept safely out of sight.
The dislike of and distrust in Donald Trump and his “brand” is world-wide. And, unfortunately for the rest of us, his “brand” has brought the “brand” of the United States down with it.
The Pew Research Center recently released its biannual survey that tracks global attitudes and trends in 37 nations as to their confidence/trust in the United States and its president “to do the right thing in world affairs.” It’s not a pretty picture.
According to the Pew survey, “a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs.” A full 74% expressed “no confidence” in Trump. One wonders if Trump’s advisors have told him that, in the final years of President Obama’s second term, a median of 64% “expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world,” with only 23% expressing “no confidence.”
Perhaps not, fearing a tweetstorm of epic proportions and another round of “Barack Obama is to blame for me being me.”
The decline in favorable opinions between the Obama-era and the Trump-era has resulted in a similar decline per favorable opinions of the United States on the part of the global community. At the close of the Obama presidency, “Views of the U.S.” were at 64%/26% on the favorable/unfavorable spectrum. After only five months of the Trump presidency, they were at 49%/39% on the same spectrum.
Free fall.
Of even greater concern than the macro view, however, is the perspective held by America’s closest allies on Donald Trump as compared to their perspectives on Barack Obama as measured just six months ago.
Only 10% of the Swedish people currently have confidence in Donald Trump “to do the right thing regarding world affairs.” This compared to 93% who expressed confidence in President Obama at the end of his second term.
Germany? Trump inspires confidence in 11% of the population. Six months ago, Obama’s number was at 86%.
In Spain, Trump enjoys the confidence of 7% of the population while, six months ago, then-President Obama enjoyed the confidence of 75% of the people.
The Trump/Obama favorable ratio in France is 14%/84% and, in the UK, it is 22%/79%.
The two NATO members most trending toward becoming right-wing autocracies–actually, they are already there–are Poland and Turkey. Respectively, the Trump/Obama favorable ratios are 23%/58% and 11%/45%.
And our North American neighbors, Mexico and Canada, weigh in at 5%/49% and 22%/83%.
The good news for President Trump is that there are two countries where he inspires more confidence than President Obama: Israel and Russia. In Israel, the Trump/Obama favorables are 56%/49%. And, in Russia, the disparity is enormous, with the People of Putin weighing in at 53%/11%.
However, the Pew survey has even more disturbing news for Donald Trump.
Confidence in the president “to do the right thing in world affairs” was measured against confidence in three other prominent world leaders: Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
This is going to hurt The Donald’s feelings, but Merkel far outdistanced all of the other three, enjoying the confidence of 42% of those in the 37 countries surveyed. Xi Jinping was at 28% and Putin was at 27%. The leader of what was, until six months ago, the Beacon of the Free World? He enjoyed the confidence of a miserly 22%.
People, America is going dark.
Though I’m sure The Donald would call that Fake News.