If America is great again, the world—with one or two exceptions—doesn’t seem to know it yet. The Pew Research Center released a new report on Monday comparing views of the United States and the U.S. president from around the world to the same from the end of the Obama era. The results aren’t exactly surprising, but they certainly are dramatic.
The survey of 37 countries taken between the end of February and beginning of May found a drop of 64 to 49 percent in those with a favorable view of the U.S. since the end of the Obama presidency. Those with an unfavorable view increased from 26 percent to 39 percent. As for Trump, the number of people with confidence in the U.S. president fell from 64 to 22 percent, while those with no confidence increased by 22 percent to a whopping 74 percent.
While the difference is most stark in Western Europe, 35 of the 37 countries surveyed had a lower opinion of Trump than Obama:
Pew Research Center
About those outliers: Obama, who had a contentious relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was widely disliked in Israel. The Trump administration has had a couple of missteps in the relationship already, but its hard line against Iran and an approach to the peace process that’s deferential to Israel even by normal U.S. standards, seems to have pleased Israelis.
As for Russia, there were high hopes there—for obvious reasons—that the Trump administration would pursue a more pro-Russian foreign policy. It hasn’t quite turned out that way on a range of issues, from sanctions to Syria policy, and the pro-Kremlin media has reportedly become much more critical of the U.S. president. In other words, the good feelings may not last much longer.
