Pew releases new study on global attitude towards America and Trump

Pew Research Center released a new study on global attitudes towards the United States, its policies, and its leader on June 26, 2017.

The Pew Center released a new study on the world’s opinion of the United States, and it’s rather terrible. The most notable conclusion drawn by the study is that Russia is the only country surveyed, out of 37, to say the U.S. has “improved by a large margin”. Still, most countries share the belief that the U.S. respects the personal freedoms of its citizens.

Pew notes that the global median is now 49%, a significant drop from the 64% of approval from the world during President Obama’s last few years as leader of the country. One country’s disapproval has, Pew says, tripled in size, going from 7% to 23%. Though not particularly surprising, the study found that America’s long-time ally, Israel, was the only nation in the Middle East region to have a positive opinion.

In short, the worldwide opinion of the United States has dropped significantly in the last few months. The study also state that countries identifying as politically right tend to view the U.S. more favorably, sometimes by as much as a 42 point difference (Venezuela).

It appears gender also plays a role in opinions of the United States:

“Men voice a more favorable opinion of America than do women in half the European countries surveyed” –Pew Global

Similarly, European women in particular have less positive views of the nation, falling 23 to 37 points in some countries of the region.

The study’s summary also points out that over half of the nations surveyed have had a drop in the double digits of positive views. The largest difference between the end of Obama’s presidency and the beginning of Trump’s was Mexico, with a 36 point drop in favorable views. Only six countries had an increase in positive views, with the highest change seen in Russia (+26 points).

However, the view of Americans themselves is generally positive. Pew’s study finds the global median of favorable opinions to be 58%, studying the United States’s use of soft power policy. This is American culture and ideas. The region viewing Americans most favorably is Asia, with South Korea and Vietnam tied at 86% in favor of American people. In the Middle East, Israel remains the only country with a truly positive outlook on Americans (53%). Yet:

“Only a quarter of Russians (27%) approve of the spread of American ideas and customs.” –Pew Global

Russians also tend to view America’s ideas about democracy unfavorably, with just 30% saying they approved. Perhaps most tellingly, Mexico comes in second in disapproval with just a quarter approving.

American pop culture remains quite popular around the world, though. Europe’s median in favorable answer to the statement “I like American music, movies, and television” was at 76% agreeing. The lowest numbers, again, were seen in the Middle East, despite Israel and Lebanon’s over 60% agreement rates. The lowest agreement percentage was India, a country with a booming entertainment industry of its own.

In a worrying development, the world appears to have very little faith in Trump’s policies. With a global median of 74% replying that they have “no confidence” in the U.S. president’s policies. That is nearly three-quarters of the 27 countries surveyed. Not astoundingly, Mexico had the least confidence with 93% replying “no confidence”, although countries such as Spain and Sweden were close behind, replying with 92% and 90%, respectively.

These are a lot of numbers, a lot of percentages being thrown around. But, what it comes down to is that although citizens around the globe seem to have quite favorable opinions of Americans themselves, the policies and those running the country are viewed negatively. European and many African country had a significant amount of confidence that President Obama would “do the right thing”, but the map for President Trump is lacking any solid confidence, as seen here.

The full study by Pew Research Center can be found here.