Under Trump, US Image Plummets Below China and Russia, Ex-NATO Secretary-General: Disappointing
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The global image of the United States continues to decline under the leadership of President Donald Trump. Indeed, the world’s perception of Washington is now rated worse than that of Russia and China, marking one of the sharpest declines in US geopolitical influence in the last two decades.
The annual Democracy Perception Index report, released ahead of the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, shows that the global net perception of the US has plummeted to minus 16 per cent. This figure has dropped dramatically compared to two years ago, when it was still at a positive 22 per cent. In the survey, the US position is below Russia, which recorded minus 11 per cent, while China has achieved a positive perception of 7 per cent.
The survey, conducted by the Denmark-based Democracy Alliance Foundation, also places the United States as one of the countries most frequently regarded as a major global threat, alongside Russia and Israel.
The founder of the Democracy Alliance and former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the decline in the US image is not surprising. According to him, Trump’s foreign policy over the last 18 months has shaken transatlantic relations and weakened trust among Washington’s traditional allies.
“The rapid decline in perceptions of the United States around the world is indeed disappointing, but not surprising,” said Rasmussen, as reported by several media outlets in America and Europe.
He assessed that trade tariff policies, threats to NATO allies’ territories, and Washington’s aggressive approach to global conflicts have worsened America’s diplomatic position.
US relations with Europe continue to face pressure. Trump’s threats to take over Greenland from Denmark, reductions in military aid to Ukraine, and the US-Israel war against Iran are cited as factors weakening Western solidarity. The situation has heated up further after reports that Trump is considering the option of withdrawing the United States from NATO.
The decline in Washington’s image is also reflected in the Gallup 2025 report, which shows that China now leads the US by a significant margin for the first time in global leadership approval ratings. The median approval for China’s leadership reaches 36 per cent, while the US stands at only 31 per cent. This five-point lead represents the largest margin ever recorded by Gallup for China in nearly 20 years.