In two decades the global approval of U.S. leadership has come to its lowest point, with Washington losing most of its long-considered allies and partners.
According to a Gallup survey, the approval of U.S. leadership has fallen from 48 percent to 30 percent in the first year since President Donald Trump took office. This the is a new lowest record, with the previous one being 34 percent during the last year of President George W. Bush’s second term.
According to Gallup, the undermining of U.S. leadership in 2017 had little if anything to do with people in other countries not being familiar with the new administration in Washington. Trump’s first year in office is similar with former President Barack Obama’s last year in service in the aspect of global median of people who gave no opinion on the matter.
The survey reports that U.S. leadership declined rigorously in nations that were considered strong U.S. allies, especially Western Europe countries plus Canada, Mexico and Australia. Meanwhile, according to the poll, the approval of U.S. leadership grew in Russia, Ukraine and Israel.
The Hill reports that the main reason for the drop in approval is considered to be Trump’s campaign “America first,” during which he promised to withdraw the U.S. from multilateral trade pacts and other international agreements that he deemed unfair to the U.S.
And within days of taking office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate agreement, then from the Trans Pacific Partnership, which was a trade accord between a dozen countries across the Pacific, ending with the withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal.
The Gallup survey reports that the approval of U.S. leadership in many of the countries involved in the Trans Pacific Partnership has declined sharply. The survey interviewed 1,000 people older than 15 years in 134 countries, with a margin of error from 2.1 percent to 5 percent.
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