Europe and Asia dislike Trump but remain fans of Obama
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2016-07-15 11:35:05
Barack Obama remains hugely popular in Europe and Asia, Donald Trump has record-breaking negative ratings and Hillary Clinton is somewhere in the middle.That is the conclusion of a poll in 16 countries by Pew Research, which finds that views of the US and its president have rebounded strongly throughout the Obama administration after the slump under former president George W Bush and that perceptions of American economic power have also improved.
The poll concludes that Europeans and Asians have very little confidence in Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee — with half of the European nations surveyed registering support of below 10 per cent.“As he nears the end of his presidency, Barack Obama continues to enjoy a broad degree of international popularity,” Pew concluded.
Among the Europeans polled, 77 per cent expressed confidence in Mr Obama and 63 per cent said they had a favourable view of the US. In contrast, the level of confidence in Mr Bush had fallen below 20 per cent in a number of European countries by the end of his presidency.
Mr Obama prompted an almost giddying optimism among some European nations when he was first elected president — a sentiment that was bound to be dimmed by the realities of governing — but he has maintained strong levels of support in most countries, despite misgivings about American surveillance and counter-terrorism policies.
European respondents also now view the US as being the world’s leading economic power, reversing a trend since 2010 when China had been considered to be ahead. Among the 16 nations, Japan is the only one where a majority now thinks the US is less important and powerful than it was a decade ago, while Americans are more pessimistic than most of the other countries, with 46 per cent saying the country’s power and influence has declined, according to Pew.
China’s favourable ratings have dropped since last year, with only 37 per cent of Americans having a positive impression of the country and only 11 per cent of Japanese seeing China in a good light.
Russian president Vladimir Putin also fared badly in the poll, with more than 80 per cent of respondents in Spain, Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands saying they had no confidence in him. However, in all the countries polled, Mr Putin is viewed more positively by men than women.