View from the globe: How the world see Trump’s US – Pew

Since the emergence as Donald Trump as president of the
United States, love or hate, the world around the US has never been the same
and a survey conducted by research giant, Pew, reveals some worrisome stats.

Donald Trump’s presidency has had a “major impact on
how the world sees the United States”, a large new study says.

The survey, by the Pew Research Centre, interviewed more
than 40,000 people in 37 countries this year.

It concluded that the US president and his policies
“are broadly unpopular around the globe”.

The survey shows only two of the 37 countries have a better
opinion of Mr Trump than they had of his predecessor Barack Obama: Israel and
Russia.

But the report indicates many feel their country’s
relationship with the US will not change over the coming years, BBC reported.

The key findings from the survey, carried out between 16
February and 8 May, include:

People have less faith in Trump than Obama

People were surveyed at the end of Barack Obama’s eight-year
presidency, and after the start of Mr Trump’s term – they were asked if they
had faith that the president would do the right thing for world affairs.

This is how some US allies (and Russia) responded:

Mr Trump wasted little time in making his mark on world
affairs – making clear he expected Nato countries to pay their fair share and
encouraging Gulf countries to isolate Qatar in recent weeks.

His presidency has shaken up old allies to the extent that
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, after she met Mr Trump, that she felt
Europe could no longer “completely depend” on its old ally.

In fact, it is among the traditional US allies that the
confidence has dropped the most, according to the survey – while 86 per cent of
Germans had faith in Mr Obama, for example, only 11 per cent do so in Mr Trump.

In his five months in office, the US president has, however,
reached out to important friends – visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia and other
countries early on.

His focus on the relationship with Israel, for one, has paid
off – though his preferred status among Israelis is also reflective of Mr
Obama’s unpopularity there.

India, whose prime minister Narendra Modi met Mr Trump on
Monday, is one of the countries that looks on the US president most favourably –
40 per cent of respondents had confidence in him compared with 58 per cent for
Mr Obama.

Most countries see Trump in an unfavourable light

Responders were asked if they viewed Mr Trump in seven
particular ways. Here is a sample of answers from three random countries from
three continents:

“Across all the characteristics tested, positive and
negative, President Trump is most likely to be described as arrogant,” the
Pew report says.

In 26 of the 37 countries, more than half of respondents
consider Mr Trump dangerous.

Having said that, the opinion changes depending on who is
answering – those who say they are left-leaning are far more likely to consider
him dangerous. In Peru and Brazil, it’s those in the centre politically who are
more likely to be worried.

Across the board, Mr Trump is seen as a strong leader –
Latin American and African countries in particular really believe this. The
downside for him is that very few countries believe he is qualified to be
president.