Political Dataviz: America’s Global Standing Plummets (The Economist)

A new survey by the Pew Research Centre of 40,447 people in 37 countries shows that trust in President Trump’s residency pales in comparison with Barack Obama’s final ratings. Whereas 64% of those surveyed had confidence in Mr Obama to do the right thing, just 22% are similarly optimistic about his successor, whom they described as “arrogant” (75%), “intolerant” (65%) and “dangerous” (62%). Citizens in Western Europe put no more stock in Mr Trump—who took office just over five months ago—than they did in George W. Bush, the architect of the highly unpopular war in Iraq, when he limped out of the White House in 2008.

Respondents’ approval rating for America overall has also slumped, from 64% to 49%.

Of all the countries surveyed by Pew, Mr Trump’s worst ratings come from Mexico, America’s southern neighbor. The president has characterized its immigrants to the USA as rapists, and promised to force its government to pay for a wall on their shared border. Sure enough, just 5% of Mexicans say they are confident in him.

At the other extreme, respondents in only two countries prefer Mr Trump to his predecessor. Israelis are fonder of him by seven percentage points, perhaps because he has sounded, at times, friendlier toward settlements and harsher towards Iran. A far greater gain comes from Russia, where only 11% liked President Obama, but 53% say that they like President Trump. The FBI is currently investigating whether anyone involved in Mr Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election on his behalf.

Even in countries where he is mostly despised, Mr Trump still found some support from those who share his ideology. Across Europe, people with favorable views of their hometown populist party have much higher appraisals for Mr Trump—though, even among them, confidence was not above 50%. Of those who approve of the National Front, 39% express confidence in Mr Trump; for those who disapprove of Marine Le Pen’s party, that number is just 6%.

America’s president is often described as the “leader of the free world”. Mr Trump may be making that moniker an anachronism. Given his reluctance to reiterate America’s commitment to NATO’s collective-defense policy, it is little wonder that Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and a staunch defender of liberal internationalism, inspires more confidence than Mr Trump does. However, he also fell short of leaders with far weaker democratic credentials. Even autocrats like Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin scored better.

Source: Economist, The, America’s global standing plummets under Donald Trump, The Economist, Daily Chart, June 2017, http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/06/daily-chart-19?fsrc=rss.