Foreign Affairs

Fresh evidence emerged this week. Politico reported:

The U.S. under Donald Trump is seen as more of a threat than an ally, according to a new POLITICO European Pulse survey of six major EU countries.

Since returning to power in January 2025, Trump has questioned Washington’s commitment to NATO, threatened to annex Greenland and Canada, hit allies with tariffs and launched a war with Iran that European countries refused to join.

According to the data, only 12% of those polled across Poland, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy saw the United States as a close ally. The same polling found that 36% saw the U.S. as a threat. (The surveys were conducted from March 13 to 21, the third week of the war with Iran.)

These results come on the heels of a Gallup report, released last week, that showed China surpassing the United States in global approval ratings. Gallup noted, “China’s five-percentage-point advantage over the U.S. is the widest Gallup has recorded in China’s favor in nearly 20 years. … Disapproval of U.S. leadership rose [in 2025] to a record-high 48%.”

In February, YouGov polling also showed opinions of the United States falling to their lowest level since the pollster began tracking them a decade ago.....

The problem with this defense is that Trump has invested an enormous amount of time and energy making the opposite argument. Indeed, two weeks ago, the president spoke in Miami at an event sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and said, “America is respected again all over the world, perhaps like never before.”

It would be great if that were true. Thanks to Trump’s failures, scandals, misjudgments and humiliations, it’s not.