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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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This has been happening every 4 years for the past 30 years. It will change once again once Trump is replaced by a Dem.
This also goes for Russia, Israel, China, or whatever other country. People put too much stock on perception trends, when in reality it means very little. Things like this change at the drop of a hat.
Americans may be misleading themselves if they think that all the damage Trump has done will suddenly be undone once he is gone. Most people outside the US see Trump as holding up a mirror to what America really is that was previously cloaked in some level of diplomacy so it wasn't so readily shown to the world. Plus the US used to have the money to buy goodwill but Trump is doing his best to bankrupt the company (country) while lining his own pockets, the only skill in which he has prior demonstrated ability.
Rubio's state department has been standing up fascist dictatorships in Latin America as quickly as he can.
I suspect any Dem who replaces him and isn't fully in board with ethically cleansing indigenous people south of the border will have a difficult time.
Then you've got fascist governments in the Philippines, India, and Japan, all of whom have been very much onboard with Trump's ultra-nationalism.
And European fascists from Reform UK to the AfD have been piling up election wins for years, in no small part thanks to American tech billionaire support.
Anyone who believes this all ends the day Trump flounders out of office is kidding themselves. We will, at best, be right back where we started on January 7th, 2021.
And yet it means nothing. When you look at glonal perception data of the US, it was favorable under Clinton, Obama, and Biden and unfavorable under Bush and Trump both times. Outside of the obvious partisan implications, the data shows that perception changes a lot and very quickly. It really doesn't mean much outside of the present atmosphere.
Can only speak of my own country, but we certainly did nothing to permanently decouple from the US under Bush or the first Trump term. But we are now. I think you underestimate how much damage Trump has done to the US' relations with the rest of the world
I think a significant difference this time was that they elected the idiot again, after Biden had spent four years trying to douse the flames, and the guy still wasn't in jail. It became clear to us in a different way what kind of country we're dealing with: A country that will see a blatantly corrupt facist attempt a coup, and will elect him again four years later rather than imprison him.
With earlier ones like Bush there were always some easing circumstances: When you look back at Bush today there's no doubt that he was orders of magnitude more mentally stable that the orange one, while also largely playing by the rules (by that I mean, not attempting a violent coup after his second term).
With trump it's gone too far. This isn't just about political disagreement anymore, it's about electing someone that respects the basic facts about how the world works. Someone that can't just look at you with a straight face and lie about something you're both seeing right in front of you.
YMMV
We had a big leap from Bush to Obama in '08/'09. But Obama burned off his confidence over two terms, particularly with regard to Climate Change. Clinton enjoyed a similar honeymoon his first year in office, before souring on the world stage with repeated military interventions and trade fights.
Trump, curiously, gained back a bunch of his approval between terms, especially in big O&G linked nations (Australia, Saudi Arabia, Canada), before fucking it all up with the tariff bid. And he gets sudden upswells of support among ex-pat communities - Cubans, Venezuelans, Iranians, Chinese dissidents - depending on whether he's promising to do regime change against an American enemy leader.
One of the technical upsides of Trump's brand of transactional politics is that international leaders (and their ultra-wealthy handlers) can often buy favorable treatment from Trump directly, even when the domestic residents don't really care for him. So while we'll see "The world hates Trump!" we'll still end up with a cartel of international business leaders lobbying for him and doing pay-to-play politics in order to win concessions.
I think you mean to say it doesn't affect you.