The last time Trump was elected, many in the U.S. and around the world took comfort in the idea that Europe would step into the breach. They declared then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel the true leader of the free world — a role immortalized in an iconic G7 photo where’s she’s flanked by the leaders of the world’s major democracies, looming over a sulking Trump. But today, Europe has based its entire security, economic and political strategy on the existence of an American ally that Trump has now declared extinct.
However, a major opinion poll conducted by my organization, the European Council on Foreign Relations, shows that Europe’s anxiety about Trump is not widely shared.
After talking to 28,000 individuals across 24 countries, we found that the vast majority of people around the world think Trump is, in fact, good for the U.S., good for the world and good for global peace.
According to our data, in India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and South Africa, three in five people believe Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. One in two believe he will achieve peace in the Middle East. And the prevailing view everywhere is that he’ll actually salve Washington’s relations with Beijing — a view that’s rather strikingly held by just a little under half of the poll’s Chinese participants.
Although many may welcome Trump’s return to office, they don’t necessarily believe he’ll make America great again. In fact, in 20 of the 24 countries we polled, more than half of participants think China is going to be the most powerful country in the world in 20 years’ time. Among major middle powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and South Africa, almost seven in 10 people believe this.
It is ironic that the very things that make Trump’s return to the White House so scary for many Europeans are what make him attractive to the rest of the world.
