US global image plummets after Trump's return

Americans are going to start pretending to be Canadians again

Global perceptions of the United States have deteriorated following the re-election of President Donald Trump. The 2025 Democracy Perception Index reveals a significant decline in favorable views of America.

The 2025 Democracy Perception Index

Conducted by Nira Data for the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, the Democracy Perception Index is an annual report on polling from around the world that examines attitudes toward democracies, geopolitics, and the perception of the world’s most important powers according to Politico. 

Is Trump to blame for the fall?

The 2025 poll surveyed adults from over 110,000 people from more than 100 countries in early April and found that perceptions of the United States have suffered a seriously significant hit since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office in January 2025. However, the 2024 data revealed the US was already slipping. 

Most countries have a negative view of the US

“The United States is viewed more negatively than positively in most countries around the world,” Nira Data noted. Perceptions of the US were particularly bad in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. 

Canada and Mexico saw steep slips as well

Close US allies and neighbors Canada and Mexico also held particularly negative views of the United States. Europe was likewise critical of America with the most net negative sentiment toward the country coming from Spain and Belgium. 

The new data wasn't very surprising

“I’m not surprised that perceptions of the United States have fallen so sharply,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Chair of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, former NATO Chief, and Danish Prime Minister, said about the findings.  

Places where the US is still popular

In contrast, the United States saw most of its positive ratings come from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Romania and Poland were two countries in Eastern Europe noted to still have a positive perception of the US. 

Most countries gave a negative rating

“Out of the 97 countries surveyed, 44 (45%) have a net positive image of the US, while 53 (55%) have a net negative perception,” Nira Data noted. However, another important problem was revealed by the data. 

China is more popular than the US now

One interesting statistic revealed by the new data was that China is now more popular than the United States, which makes sense considering the utter chaos that President Trump unleashed on the world with his trade and tariff policies. 

A striking indicator of public opinion

“For the first time, more countries now hold a positive view of China than of the United States,” Nira Data CEO Dr. Nico Jaspers said, calling the finding “a striking indicator of how public opinion is evolving across different regions and political systems.”

Where China was more popular than the US

According to Nira Data, net positive perceptions of China were higher in Western Europe than they were for the United States. This trend held true in Asia and Latin America as well and there were specific countries that stood out in their perceptions of both nations. 

There are still some staunch pro-US supporters

Israel, South Korea, Japan, Poland, and Ukraine strongly preferred the United States to China while countries like Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia viewed China much more positively than the United States according to the data. 

Trump was the most negative public figure

Trump was the most globally recognized political leader with 85% of respondents saying they knew who he was. However, the US president also achieved an almost universally negative perception rating—he scored a net negative perception in 82% of countries. 

A worse negative rating than Putin and Xi

Trump scored a worse negative rating than Russian President Vladimir Putin (61%) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (44%). Only 27% of those polled had a positive perception of Trump compared to 32% for Putin and 32% for Xi. 

Every region dislikes Donald Trump

“Donald Trump is viewed negatively across nearly every region of the world—especially in democratic countries. In Europe and other democratic states, perceptions of Trump are nearly as negative as those of Vladimir Putin,” Nira Data explained.