When Donald Trump prepared to travel abroad for a NATO summit in 2017, the United States’ allies were concerned what to do with the then-president. Foreign Policy magazine reported at the time that our NATO allies were “scrambling” to tailor the international gathering to avoid taxing Trump’s “notoriously short attention span.”
One source explained, “It’s kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump. It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing…. They’re freaking out.”
Conditions are quite different now. Gallup released a report this week on the United States’ standing among NATO members in the post-Trump era.
U.S. President Joe Biden will need to lean into newfound goodwill among NATO allies on Thursday as he meets with NATO leaders in a high-stakes summit about the war in Ukraine. Gallup surveys conducted before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 showed the image of U.S. leadership was stronger across much of NATO than it had been in years, after languishing at low levels during the Trump administration.
Gallup’s report comes less than a year after the Pew Research Center released a related report documenting “dramatic” improvements in the United States’ international stature following the Democrat’s inauguration. With Biden in the White House — and with Trump out of it — global confidence in the presidency has soared; the U.S. is now more respected; and people abroad have greater confidence that the U.S. can be counted on to do the right thing.
On the surface, none of this should be especially surprising. The United States has traditionally enjoyed strong international support, and under Biden, we’re seeing a return to something resembling normalcy.
But circling back to our earlier coverage, what’s striking is the degree to which international surveys shatter Republican assumptions.
At a campaign event in 2020, for example, Trump turned his attention to one of his very favorite falsehoods: “You know, we’re respected again. You may not feel it, although I think you do. You may not see it. You don’t read about it from the fake news, but this country is respected again.”
As regular readers know, it has long been foundational to the Republican’s worldview: The United States was an international laughingstock for decades, Trump’s argued, but thanks to how awesome his awesomeness is, he singlehandedly restored the nation’s global stature. It was a ridiculous idea he brought up constantly, seeing it as one of his most important accomplishments.
Even in his strange farewell address, Trump found it necessary, one last time, to boast to Americans, “The world respects us again.” In an apparent message for Biden, the outgoing president added, “Please don’t lose that respect.”
It was a bizarre challenge from a failed leader who’d done extraordinary harm to the United States’ international reputation. As the findings from Gallup and the Pew Research Center show, everything Trump said about his successes in improving the United States’ standing was wrong, and it’s Biden who’s actually accomplishing what his predecessor felt compelled to lie about.
What’s more, these circumstances are oddly familiar. Barack Obama’s GOP detractors were absolutely convinced that the Democratic president had done real damage to the United States’ international reputation. The opposite was true, but Republicans nevertheless argued, with unnerving vigor, that America had forfeited the admiration of the world — and it was Obama’s fault. During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, for example, Jeb Bush insisted that during the Obama era, “We have lost the trust and confidence of our friends.” Around the same time, Scott Walker and Trump had a chat about “how poorly” the United States was “perceived throughout the world.” (In 2014, Trump also tweeted, “We need a President who isn’t a laughing stock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!”) Mitt Romney added, “It is hard to name even a single country that has more respect and admiration for America today than when President Obama took office.” In reality, the United States’ reputation soared under Obama, repairing the damage done during the Bush/Cheney era. Now, it’s déjà vu all over again, as Biden restores confidence in the wake of Trump. All of this matters in ways that go well beyond bragging rights. As Rachel explained on the show last summer, Biden is determined to show the world that the United States is back, it’s ready to lead responsibly, and it’s eager to prove that liberal democracy is the superior model that should endure against its authoritarian critics. There’s evidence the world is listening anew.
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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