US favorability under Trump plummets in new international poll
A median 22 percent of respondents have confidence in Trump.
— -- The U.S. is viewed less favorably on the world stage under U.S. President Donald Trump and there is less confidence in him than in his predecessor, according to a wide-ranging international survey published Monday.
The Pew Research Center's survey spanned 37 countries and found that a median 22 percent of respondents expressed confidence in Trump to do the right thing in global affairs. That is down from 64 percent who had confidence in President Barack Obama during the final years of his presidency.
The wane in trust was particularly steep among some of America's staunchest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Canada and Mexico.
Out of the 37 countries polled, Trump received higher marks than his predecessor in just two nations: Russia and Israel. Amid ongoing investigations into potential links between the Russian government and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the survey found that Russians' attitudes toward the United States have become more positive since Trump took office.
But America's overall image has suffered under Trump's leadership, even though he's only been in the White House for a few months.
At the end of Obama's presidency, a median 64 percent of people across all nations surveyed had a positive view of the United States. Today, that figure has dropped to 49 percent, according to the poll.
Favorability ratings for the United States have only increased in Russia and Vietnam.
The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., conducted the survey among 40,448 respondents in the 37 countries outside the United States from Feb. 16 to May 8. The margin of sampling error for each nation ranges from plus or minus 3.2 percentage points to 5.7 percentage points.