When Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier in June, the host asked the former president what he considers “the most important issue” facing the country. The Republican talked about the economy, border security, and getting “the woke out of our military” — I still don’t know what that means — 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. We don’t have respect anymore. … We have to get that respect back. And if we don’t, we’ve got some big problems.”
Two months later, I have some good news for the former president — though I have a hunch he won’t be glad to see it. The Washington Post reports:
After four years of decline during Donald Trump’s presidency, America’s reputation abroad is bouncing back. That’s a major takeaway from a new Pew Research Center survey on international views toward the United States.
The survey data was compiled in June, Richard Wike, the director of global attitudes at the Pew Research Center, discussed the results this week at a forum held by the University of Southern California’s Washington center.
Wike explained that international attitudes toward the United States have “certainly rebounded since President Biden was elected.” Not all of the news was encouraging — the Pew Research Center also found concerns abroad about the U.S. “interfering” in other countries’ affairs — but the researcher added that “there’s been a big shift in America’s global image in a positive direction.”
This encouraging news is consistent with other data from the last couple of years. Revisiting our earlier coverage, a Gallup report in 2021 found that approval ratings of U.S. leadership around the world had “largely rebounded from the record-low ratings observed during the Trump administration.” Around the same time, the Pew Research Center released a related report documenting “dramatic” improvements in the United States’ international stature once Biden replaced Trump in the Oval Office.
A year later, Gallup released another report on the United States’ standing among NATO members, concluding that U.S. leadership in the Biden era “was stronger across much of NATO than it had been in years, after languishing at low levels during the Trump administration.”
The latest Pew Research Center data, in other words, is consistent with the recent trend.
And yet, there was Trump on Fox News in June, insisting that under Biden, we no longer have “respect all over the world,” seemingly oblivious to the fact that he had the entire dynamic backward.
In fact, this has long been one of Trump’s curious preoccupations, though he’s never gotten it right. At a campaign event in 2020, for example, the then-incumbent boasted, “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 has long 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, delivered on his final full day in the White House, Trump found it necessary, one last time, to tell Americans, “The world respects us again.” The Republican added, in an apparent message for his Democratic successor, “Please don’t lose that respect.” None of this made any sense. After roughly 46% of American voters put Trump in the White House, international public opinion research showed that our global stature collapsed. Remember this Washington Post report from 2020? New data from Pew Research Center shows that many of the countries that have traditionally been the United States’ closest allies are now far less likely to view the country with approval. In 11 countries for which there are more than five years of data, the percentage of people viewing the United States with approval is at a recorded low in nine. The median percentage expressing favorable views of the United States across each of the countries surveyed is also at a record low, with about a third of respondents holding a favorable view.
Even before 2020, international surveys on our international standing pointed in a discouraging direction. In many countries, including longtime U.S. allies, global support for the White House was high during Barack Obama’s terms, but then collapsed after the Democrat was replaced by Trump. The Pew Research Center analysis from September 2020 noted, “In several countries, the share of the public with a favorable view of the U.S. is as low as it has been at any point since the Center began polling on this topic nearly two decades ago.” Pew added, “Attitudes toward Trump have consistently been much more negative than those toward his predecessor. … The publics surveyed also see Trump more negatively than other world leaders.” If the Republican is genuinely convinced that international respect for the United States is “the most important issue” facing the country, I have good news and bad news for the former president. The good news is that the country’s standing has rebounded nicely; the bad news is that it’s Biden who’s helped deliver the encouraging results. This post revises our related earlier coverage.
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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