SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
People carry signs and banners as they gather in Trafalgar Square, central London, to demonstrate against the state visit of President Donald Trump, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (Photo: Tim Ireland/AP)
Two-Thirds of People Around the World Say Trump Can't Be Trusted to Make Right Choice on Foreign Policy
Low confidence in Trump was expressed even before the president escalated tensions with Iran with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.
Jan 07, 2020
Even before President Donald Trump stunned the international community by ordering the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani last week, people around the world had little confidence in Trump's handling of global affairs.
In a Pew survey taken of nearly 37,000 people in 33 countries between May and October 2019 and released Wednesday, 64% of respondents said they did not have confidence that Trump would do "the right thing" when making decisions about relations with other countries.
The Pew Research Center asked respondents whether they favored a number of Trump's most significant decisions up to last year, including his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, his proposal to build a wall along the southern U.S. border as well as other aggressive anti-immigration policies aimed at deterring immigration, and his decision to increase tariffs on imported goods.
Respondents in Mexico had the least favorable view of Trump. The president was viewed negatively by 89% of people in the country that the president claimed in 2015 was sending its "most unwanted people" including "criminals, drug dealers, rapists" to immigrate to the United States.
The president also had low favorability ratings in European countries including the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and France, with about three-quarters of people in those countries saying they weren't confident in Trump's foreign policy decisions.
In the last year of his first term, Trump's results were similar to those of George W. Bush at the end of his second term as president, five years into the Iraq War and around the time that the speculation on Wall Street sent the global economy into a meltdown.
At the end of President Barack Obama's second term, 79% of international respondents viewed the 44th president favorably.
It is "worth reiterating the damage Trump is doing to our alliances at a moment when we could use steadfast allies," political scientist Brian Klaas tweeted, along with a chart showing the difference between global opinions regarding Obama during his presidency versus those of Trump.
Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at Pew, wrote that negative attitudes about U.S. leadership plummeted during Bush's tenure due to the perception of the U.S. as an "unchecked superpower," while people today see Trump as isolating the U.S. from the global community by breaching and withdrawing from international agreements.
"In the Trump era, by contrast, critics are less concerned about the exercise of unrivaled U.S. power than they are about a U.S. retreat--from both global leadership and liberal democracy," wrote Wike.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Even before President Donald Trump stunned the international community by ordering the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani last week, people around the world had little confidence in Trump's handling of global affairs.
In a Pew survey taken of nearly 37,000 people in 33 countries between May and October 2019 and released Wednesday, 64% of respondents said they did not have confidence that Trump would do "the right thing" when making decisions about relations with other countries.
The Pew Research Center asked respondents whether they favored a number of Trump's most significant decisions up to last year, including his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, his proposal to build a wall along the southern U.S. border as well as other aggressive anti-immigration policies aimed at deterring immigration, and his decision to increase tariffs on imported goods.
Respondents in Mexico had the least favorable view of Trump. The president was viewed negatively by 89% of people in the country that the president claimed in 2015 was sending its "most unwanted people" including "criminals, drug dealers, rapists" to immigrate to the United States.
The president also had low favorability ratings in European countries including the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and France, with about three-quarters of people in those countries saying they weren't confident in Trump's foreign policy decisions.
In the last year of his first term, Trump's results were similar to those of George W. Bush at the end of his second term as president, five years into the Iraq War and around the time that the speculation on Wall Street sent the global economy into a meltdown.
At the end of President Barack Obama's second term, 79% of international respondents viewed the 44th president favorably.
It is "worth reiterating the damage Trump is doing to our alliances at a moment when we could use steadfast allies," political scientist Brian Klaas tweeted, along with a chart showing the difference between global opinions regarding Obama during his presidency versus those of Trump.
Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at Pew, wrote that negative attitudes about U.S. leadership plummeted during Bush's tenure due to the perception of the U.S. as an "unchecked superpower," while people today see Trump as isolating the U.S. from the global community by breaching and withdrawing from international agreements.
"In the Trump era, by contrast, critics are less concerned about the exercise of unrivaled U.S. power than they are about a U.S. retreat--from both global leadership and liberal democracy," wrote Wike.
Even before President Donald Trump stunned the international community by ordering the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani last week, people around the world had little confidence in Trump's handling of global affairs.
In a Pew survey taken of nearly 37,000 people in 33 countries between May and October 2019 and released Wednesday, 64% of respondents said they did not have confidence that Trump would do "the right thing" when making decisions about relations with other countries.
The Pew Research Center asked respondents whether they favored a number of Trump's most significant decisions up to last year, including his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, his proposal to build a wall along the southern U.S. border as well as other aggressive anti-immigration policies aimed at deterring immigration, and his decision to increase tariffs on imported goods.
Respondents in Mexico had the least favorable view of Trump. The president was viewed negatively by 89% of people in the country that the president claimed in 2015 was sending its "most unwanted people" including "criminals, drug dealers, rapists" to immigrate to the United States.
The president also had low favorability ratings in European countries including the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Germany, and France, with about three-quarters of people in those countries saying they weren't confident in Trump's foreign policy decisions.
In the last year of his first term, Trump's results were similar to those of George W. Bush at the end of his second term as president, five years into the Iraq War and around the time that the speculation on Wall Street sent the global economy into a meltdown.
At the end of President Barack Obama's second term, 79% of international respondents viewed the 44th president favorably.
It is "worth reiterating the damage Trump is doing to our alliances at a moment when we could use steadfast allies," political scientist Brian Klaas tweeted, along with a chart showing the difference between global opinions regarding Obama during his presidency versus those of Trump.
Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at Pew, wrote that negative attitudes about U.S. leadership plummeted during Bush's tenure due to the perception of the U.S. as an "unchecked superpower," while people today see Trump as isolating the U.S. from the global community by breaching and withdrawing from international agreements.
"In the Trump era, by contrast, critics are less concerned about the exercise of unrivaled U.S. power than they are about a U.S. retreat--from both global leadership and liberal democracy," wrote Wike.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.