Let it be known: The world has witnessed a changing of the guard. The President of the United States is no longer the “Leader of the Free World” and we have Donald Trump to thank for that.
Not only is President Trump unpopular here in the United States, where his approval ratings have fluttered consistently in the 30s; he is also unpopular around the world. According to a recently released Pew Research Center report, the image and confidence in the United States has suffered greatly in just the six months since Trump assumed office.
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey spanning 37 nations, including neighbors Mexico and Canada and U.S. allies like the United Kingdom, Germany and South Korea. That survey found that, compared to former President Barack Obama, confidence in Trump’s ability to make the right decision was extremely low. In fact, the median confidence in Trump among those 37 countries was just 22 percent. Obama’s was 64 percent at the end of his presidency.
Not only has the world’s confidence in the U.S. president declined, the overall image of the country has taken a big hit. Again comparing the first few months of the Trump era to Obama’s marks at the end of his, the worldwide view of the U.S. has dropped from 64 percent favorability to 49 percent favorability.
Only two nations have more confidence in Trump than under Obama: Russia and Israel. Russia and Vietnam are the only two countries to view the U.S. more favorably under Trump.
Most of Trump’s policies, including his desire to build a border wall, his Muslim travel ban, his climate policies and his view on trade agreements, are extremely unpopular around the world. Trump’s attacks against the media and his Twitter rants have done him no favors, either.
Trump’s, policies, his rhetoric and his combativeness have left him, and therefore the United States, isolated from the rest of the world. The reaction when Trump announced the U.S. would back out of the Paris Climate Accord and the reception he received at the recent G7 and G20 summits reflect that view.
On climate change, the G20 summit became the G19 when the United States was singled out in an official statement for its decision to leave the Paris agreement. Involving issues such as trade, a number of world leaders directed public remarks at Trump, condemning isolationism and protectionism.
It appears the title of “Leader of the Free World” now belongs to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the longest serving democratic leader in the world. Highly respected in Europe, in the aforementioned Pew Research study, Merkel is also respected around the world.
Aside from just general respect, unlike Merkel, Trump has very few, if any, redeemable qualities that make him deserving of leading the democratic world.
Trump is rarely agreeable. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, tweeting off-the-cuff and generally unappetizing remarks about anyone he disagrees with; he is incapable of diplomacy.
Most politicians are at least occasionally able to rally others around a common issue. Donald Trump cannot.
In the United States, with a majority in both the House and Senate, the president has still not signed a major piece of legislation. And on the world stage, he has not been much better. The North Korea nuclear program is an issue concerning to all nations and a problem Trump has been most vocal about. But while there were statements on things like climate change, women’s entrepreneurship, rural youth employment, and illegal wildlife trade, no official statement condemning North Korea ever came out of the G20 summit.
“A deft president would have found an issue around which he could rally most of the leaders, and (Trump) had the perfect one--North Korea’s missile tests,” said ABC Political Editor Chris Uhlmann, who was reporting from the G20 summit. “Where was the G20 statement condemning North Korea, which would’ve put pressure on China and Russia? Other leaders expected it and were prepared to back it, but it never came.”
In 2017, leading the best military is not the sole qualifier for title of “Leader of the Free World.” This role requires leadership in all areas and an ability to bring people to the table to find solutions to problems. Donald Trump does not have that ability.
Again, reporting from the summit, Uhlmann said it best.
“[Trump] has no desire and no capacity to lead the world,” he said. “He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at [the G20 summit], and you got the strong sense that some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him.”
Some here in the States (definitely some here in Alabama) like Trump’s isolationism and nationalistic ideas, but while our president’s actions and words alienate the U.S., Germany’s Merkel has taken over the reigns.
Sadly, Merkel’s leadership alone is not enough to fill the huge void left by the sidelined United States. Germany does not have near economic power or military might of the U.S. The question now becomes how long before rivals like Russia and China fill up that vacuum?
