“Whether
evaluated on perceptions of government, business, or citizenship, the
Trump effect thus far has been overwhelmingly negative.”
– David
Reibstein and Suneal Bedi , U.S. News
The world's trust in the
United States has dropped by more than 50% since 2016, the sharpest
drop of any country assessed in the 2020 “Best Countries” report.
This drop is a direct reflection of leadership under President Donald
Trump. Despite his comments to the contrary, the U.S. under Trump is
viewed as more and more untrustworthy.
“Best Countries” is a
rankings, news and analysis project by U.S. News created to
capture how countries are perceived on a global scale. The rankings
evaluate 73 countries across 24 rankings drawn from a survey of more
than 20,000 global citizens, measuring 75 dimensions that have the
potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect
national economies.
In 2016, the U.S. had a
score of 33.5 on a 100-point scale. In 2020, the country’s score is
16.3, placing the country at No. 24 of the 73 countries assessed,
just behind No. 23 Greece and barely ahead of No. 25 Israel. (The
U.K. ranks No. 14 for trustworthiness in 2020, but still outperforms
the U.S. by nearly 50 points on a 100-point scale. Canada, meanwhile,
has registered a perfect 100-point score for trustworthiness each
year since the report’s 2016 debut.)
The “Best Countries”
report does not stand alone in its view of a growing negative impact
on U.S. global standing.
Simon Tisdall of The
Guardian reports that a 25-nation Pew survey (2018) found,
overall, that “70% of respondents had no confidence in Trump’s
leadership.” While a majority still held a favorable view of the
US, unfavorable views were up sharply from the Obama era. About 70%
said “the U.S. under Trump did not take sufficient account of the
interests of other countries and was doing less to address
international problems.”
Then, a survey from Pew
Research Group released in February 2019 showed 45% of respondents in
26 nations with large populations felt that American power and
influence posed “a major threat to our country,” while 36%
offered the same response on Russia, and 35% on China.
To put that in
perspective, in 2013, during the presidency of Barack Obama, only 25%
of global respondents held such a negative view of the U.S., while
reactions to China remained essentially the same. Or just consider
the most powerful country in Europe, Germany. Between 2013 and 2018,
Germans who considered American power and influence a greater threat
than that of China or Russia leapt from 19% to 49%. (Figures for
France were similar.)
As for President Trump,
only 27% of global respondents had confidence in him to do the right
thing in world affairs, while 70% feared he would not.
This collapse in trust may
have lasting, long-term implications for transatlantic ties. A survey
of 60,000 people in 14 EU member states published in September 2019
by the European Council on Foreign Relations found most Europeans “no
longer believe the US can serve as a guarantor of their security.”
It is feared that Europe and America risk drifting even further apart
in 2020.
What has Trump done to
collapse trust?
Early in 2019, Trump
discussed withdrawing the U.S. from NATO. Then later in that year, he
abruptly announced a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria that left
Kurdish allies in the fight against terrorists in that country
feeling abandoned. Trump has also instigated more trade wars with
countries and freely criticized various world leaders. And, he
stirred global alarm by killing an Iranian general in Iraq. Now, of
course, Trump faces impeachment for his alleged meddling with Ukraine
in the 2020 U.S. election.
Trump has an “America
first” agenda, but this is translating into “America alone.” He
appears to have no overall game plan, preferring to mindlessly
“tweet” his way from conflict to conflict while avoiding
statesmanship and diplomacy.
For those die-hard Trump
supporters who continue to support him for “his great U.S. economy”
despite his divisive, inept policies, you must remember reportedly he
is the most dishonest president in U.S. After all, fact checkers at
The Washington Post found that Trump made “16,241 false or
misleading claims in his first three years” in office.
Here is a different way to
view the economy from FiveThirtyEight.
FiveThirtyEight (named for
the number of electors in the Electoral College) is a website that
focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports
blogging. The site has won numerous awards including “Bloggie
Awards for Best Political Coverage” in 2008 and “Best Weblog
about Politics” in 2009 as well as Webbies for “Best Political
Blog” in 2012 and 2013. While under the ownership of ESPN in 2016,
FiveThirtyEight won the “Data Journalism Website of the Year”
award from the Paris, France-based Global Editors Network.
According to
FiveThirtyEight on January 10, 2020 …
“Trump’s rhetoric
on the American economy exists in the realm of fantasy. The official
unemployment rate in the U.S. is indeed at a record low of 3.5%,
according to the latest jobs report. That number suggests that only
3.5% of all Americans capable of working are currently unemployed and
that more than 96% have jobs.
“But digging
into the numbers offers a much different picture. As per an analysis
by FiveThirtyEight.com., the 3.5% unemployment figure is
misleading; only about half of all employable Americans are working
full time, 10% are working part time, 2.1% are actively seeking work
but are unemployed, and 1.8% are not seeking work but want a job. A
whopping 35% are out of the job market and not actively seeking
work.”
FiveThirtyEight concludes
…
“That unemployment
rate in the headlines? It doesn’t really take into account your
cousin or anyone else who has quit job-hunting for a while or is
working less than they want to. And that job growth number? Take it
with +/- 120,000 grains of salt.”
(Julia
Wolfe. “A Better Way To Think About December’s Jobs Numbers.”
FiveThirtyEight.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/jobs-report-growth-unemployment/.
January 10, 2020.)
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