At a White House Cabinet meeting last summer, Donald Trump boasted about one of his favorite subjects. “We’re respected all over the world — like never before, probably,” the president said at the outset. A few days earlier, pointing to evidence that only exists in his imagination, he added, “Our nation now is the most respected nation anywhere in the world, by far.”
It wasn’t true at the time, and it’s even worse now. Axios reported:
The U.S. is losing standing abroad as President Trump’s foreign policy fuels doubts about whether America can still be counted on, according to new polling.
The Pew Research Center findings capture how Trump’s second-term approach is reshaping America’s image, with allies and partners increasingly viewing Washington as unreliable, self-interested and less committed to global cooperation.
Going through the details of the Pew Research Center report, there is effectively no good news for those hoping to see the United States maintain a leadership role in international affairs.
Views of Trump are especially brutal. While Barack Obama and, to a lesser extent, Joe Biden, enjoyed fairly broad support on the global stage, the latest findings showed 76% of people across 36 countries have no confidence in the incumbent Republican president. In fact, Trump’s standing is even worse than international confidence in Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
But complicating matters are the broader effects: The more people around the world turn against Trump, the more they hold the U.S. in low regard. The Pew report found huge increases in the number of people who now see the U.S. as an unreliable partner, while a 57% majority across the 36 countries surveyed now hold an unfavorable view of the U.S.
Only about a third of people abroad think the U.S. contributes to peace and stability around the world, and just under a third said the U.S. considers other countries’ interests when making a decision.
There might very well be some who will suggest results like these are irrelevant. After all, Trump has prioritized an “America First” attitude, so perhaps his followers will argue that his lack of international backing shouldn’t matter.
The problem with this defense is that the president has invested an enormous amount of time and energy making the opposite argument.
Two years ago this month, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, and the host asked the then-Republican candidate what he considered the most important issue facing the country. Trump talked about his usual priorities — the economy, border security, getting “the woke out of our military,” et al. — before focusing on his principal point of concern.
“Basically, respect all over the world,” Trump said. “We don’t have it anymore. We had tremendous respect three years ago [in 2020]. We don’t have respect anymore. … We have to get that respect back. And if we don’t, we’ve got some big problems.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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