America's image deteriorated under Trump, China on the rise (sort of)

America’s global image under the Trump administration remains poor two years into his presidency and well below the ratings seen during Obama's time in office, a new study from Pew Research Center has found.

Covering 25 nations, the results of the survey revealed that Trump’s international image and confidence in his ability to lead the country were lower than Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

America's image had worsened since Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, with 50% of people holding a favourable opinion of the country but 43% holding a negative view.

Global views of America’s role in world affairs were even worse. Large majorities claimed the US did not take into account the interests of their countries when taking foreign policy decisions and that it was now doing less to help solve global issues.

Recent US actions, such as Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal had sparked tensions with other countries.

He was also seen as having triggered a trade war with China even as he alienated allies such as Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Just 30% of Germans held a favourable view of the US, down five points from last year, alongside the just 38% of French and 39% of Canadians who said they had a positive view of the States, both of which were also down from last year;s levels.

Trade rival China on the other hand obtained a more positive outcome in the survey results, with a median of 70% of the belief that China’s role on the world stage had grown over the past 10 years.

Nevertheless, "despite the unease many feel about the U.S. at the moment, the idea of a U.S.-led world order is still attractive to most.

"When asked which would be better for the world, having China or the U.S. as the top global power, people in nearly every country tend to select the U.S., and this is particularly common among some of China’s Asia-Pacific neighbors, such as Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia."