The United States has grown less popular around the globe since President Donald Trump returned to office.
The 2025 Democracy Perception Index, commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies, found that a majority of people surveyed around the world had an overall negative perception of the U.S., a greater percentage than last year’s findings. China is now more popular than the U.S. worldwide, and positive sentiments toward Russia are also rising.
Only 45% of countries have a positive image of the U.S., down from 76% last year.
The U.S.’s reputation dropped sharply among those living in countries in the European Union. Trump has taken aim at the EU in recent months, calling it a “horrible” bloc of countries “formed to screw the United States.”
He and Vice President JD Vance have called on European countries to spend more on their own defense instead of relying on the U.S. to protect them.
In many African countries, as well as Western Europe, Mexico, and Canada, China is more popular than the U.S. The U.S. remains more popular than China in Australia, Brazil, and India.
Across the globe, 58% of people view Trump negatively compared to 49% who view Russian President Vladimir Putin negatively. Thirty-one percent of respondents viewed Chinese President Xi Jinping negatively. Similarly, the perception of Trump was negative in 82 of the 100 countries surveyed, which was much higher than that of Putin and Xi, who were viewed negatively in 61 and 44 countries, respectively.
“President Trump has triggered a trade war, scolded Ukraine’s president in the Oval Office, left allies feeling vulnerable and enemies emboldened,” Alliance of Democracies founder and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
“It’s no surprise that opinions have slipped even among people like me who spent their lives admiring the United States and what it stood for,” he added.
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Israel was the country with the worst global reputation of those included in the poll, notably in the Middle East and South Asia. The Jewish state is also growing unpopular with its European allies as the war in Gaza continues.
The survey questioned more than 110,000 respondents across 100 countries about perceptions of democracy.