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The Trump administration’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic has battered America’s image overseas, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Center’s Sept. 15 survey of 13 allied and partner nations finds the share of the public with a positive view of America is as low as it has been at any point since it began polling on this topic about 20 years ago.
Only 41 percent of the British people have a favorable view of the US, while France’s 31 percent rating matches that of March 2003, which was at the height of US-France tensions due to the Iraq War. A little more than a quarter (26 percent) of Germans have a positive view of the US.
The US mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic is a major reason for the declining image, according to Pew.
The Japanese (25 percent) top the list when it comes to “confidence in Trump.”
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Australia is next at 23 percent followed by Canada (20 percent), UK (19 percent), Netherlands (18 percent), South Korea (17 percent), Spain and Italy (16 percent), Sweden (15 percent), France (11 percent), Germany & Denmark (10 percent) and Belgium (9 percent).
Pew found that Trump is less trusted than the leaders of Germany, France, UK, Russia and China. Only 16 percent of respondents believe Trump “would do the right thing regarding world affairs,” compared to 83 percent who expressed no confidence in the US president to do the right thing.
Germany’s Angela Merkel has the highest marks as 76 percent of those polled have confidence in her while 19 percent have no confidence.
France’s Emmanuel Macron (64 percent, 32 percent), UK’s Boris Johnson (46 percent, 46 percent), Russia’s Vladimir Putin (23 percent, 73 percent) and China’s Xi Jinping (19 percent, 78 percent) rank next in the confidence/no confidence ratings.
Pew also polled Americans on Trump’s handling of COVID-19 messaging and gave him poor marks.
Nearly six-in-ten (57 percent) believe Trump has been delivering the wrong message about the pandemic and two-thirds say his administration “only sometimes or hardly ever gets the facts right about the outbreak.”
Americans consider the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health organizations the most trusted source when it comes to COVID-19. Fifty-seven percent of Pew’s respondents say they get it right either most or almost of the time.
Local media (47 percent), governors (46 percent), news media in general (40 percent), friends/family (28 percent) and Trump and his administration (27 percent) rank next.
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