Does eveyone hate the USA?

I started with the question, "Do Amercians know or care that most of the rest of the world hates them?" I still don't really know, but presumably the answer is that it depends on their politics, and perhaps their education level. So, most Democrats are cringing at the moment, embarrassed at the image the USA is broadcasting to the rest of the world. Most Republicans - at least the MAGA end of the Republican spectrum - insofar as they have even thought about it, probably just don't care. It's all a part of the selfish and insular mindset that characterizes the MAGA movement that the attitudes of others are just irrelevant.

But then I wondered, " Does the rest of the world actually hate America?" For that question, there is some data available. It's a few months old now, but Pew Research Center has produced a very detailed survey of international attitudes towards Donald Trump and the USA in general. Dating from June of this year, it looks at attitudes towards a whole host of related questions in 24 major countries across the world.

Unsurprisingly, the citizens of most countries have an increasingly unfavourable view of the man and the country. But there are a few interesting anomalies.

• General confidence in Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs is low with an average of 62% having no confidence in the man. Canada, Australia, Mexico and Turkey are the least confident, along with Scandinavia and most of western Europe. Hungary, India, Israel, Nigeria and Kenya, though, seem quite confident in Trump. (This was back June remember, before most of the administration's tariffs began to bite, and before some of the more recent poor decisions, failures and flip-flops.) Across the board, women have less confidence in Trump than men. 
• Favourable and unfavourable opinions of the USA roughly follows that, but less extreme. For instance, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Turkey and western and northern European countries tend to have the most unfavourable views; Israel, African countries, but also Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and India, have the most favourable opinions. On average, it is about 50-50. 
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• In most countries, opinions of the USA have become much more unfavourable over the last year, particularly in countries like Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia. Interestingly, attitudes in the UK, Hungary, Argentina, South Africa and India have hardly moved over that period, and in Israel, Nigeria and Turkey they have even improved a little.
• Over the last 25 years at least, overseas confidence in US presidents has hugely favoured Democrats, with Obama and Biden polling well, Trump and George Bush polling poorly.
• Predictably, supporters of right wing populist parties in Europe have a much more favourable view of Trump than opponents of such parties.
• On average, respondents in the 24 countries polled have little or no confidence in Trump's ability to handle US immigration policies, the Russia-Ukraine war, US-China relations, global economic problems, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and climate change, with their confidence dropping further with each of those listed issues (i.e. climate change is the issue people are least confident about).
• Trump is seen as arrogant and dangerous, but also a strong leader. He is NOT seen as diplomatic, able to understand complex problems, well-qualified, and, more than anything else, he is not considered honest.
• Only Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are seen as worse than Trump in terms of confidence to do the right things regarding world affairs.
• Views on democracy in the USA tend to follow the political inclinations of the countries. For example, countries like Hungary, Poland, Israel, Nigeria and Kenya see US democracy as strong, while most other countries do not, particularly the more liberal countries like Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, etc.

So, of course, to say that everyone hates America is trite. Many people - most people - hate Trump and what he has turned America into. But, don't forget, at least half of Americans facilitated and empowered him. It's hard not to hate them for that.