Pew poll: More people in the world have confidence in Putin than Trump
Donald
Trump is the fairly elected leader of the most prominent democracy in
the world. Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian with a long record of
punishing political allies and suppressing views divergent from his own.
And yet, according to a new Pew survey of citizens in 37 countries around the world, more people have confidence in Putin to "do the right thing regarding world affairs" than say the same about Trump.
Now,
it's not a huge margin; 27% say they have confidence in Putin while 22%
say they have confidence in Trump. Those numbers pale in comparison to
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, about whom 42% say they have
confidence.
Still, it's a remarkable sign of just how negatively Trump is viewed in the world.
Some of that is, without doubt,
personality-driven as his unapologetic brashness and America First-erism
don't sit well with European world. (A full list of the countries that
Pew sampled for the poll is here.)
But,
as the Pew poll details, much of the distrust in Trump is born of the
policies he has pursued in his first five months in office. More than
seven in 10 oppose Trump's decision to withdraw from major international
trade deals and his announcement that the US would pull out of the
Paris climate accords.
Good!, many
Trump supporters will conclude looking at these numbers. Those countries
don't like us because we are finally putting America first again! Trump
isn't willing to roll over to the world community like President Obama!
(In the final years of the Obama presidency, almost two-thirds of
people in these 37 countries had confidence in him to do the right
things on the world stage.)
Which
is why Trump isn't going to worry too much -- or at all -- about these
latest poll numbers. After all, he ran on making America great again,
not making the rest of the world great again -- at America's expense, as
he would put it. And he explicitly ran against the image of Obama
courting the opinion leaders of Europe rather than the average middle
class American.
Here's the essence of Trumpism in foreign policy -- as explained by the man himself in his statement announcing the pull-out from the Paris accords:
"At
what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start
laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens,
and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don't want other
leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won't be.
They won't be."
The bigger question -- and one Trump
seems entirely unconcerned about -- is what this deterioration in the
world's view of the American president means for his ability to lead on
internal affairs. Maybe nothing.
Maybe the power of the US and Trump's
projection of strength is enough to cow the world into doing what we
want.
But, maybe just maybe, the
lack of confidence in Trump's commitment to doing the right thing for
the world does have negative implications -- large and small -- on how
world leaders view the US and our ability to push our priorities in the
months and years to come.
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