Skip to main content

With allies like Trump, who needs adversaries?

The saying goes, "With friends likes these, who needs enemies?" When it comes to Donald Trump, the phrase could read, "With allies like him, who needs adversaries?" President Trump has been notorious for treating our allies like adversaries and our adversaries like allies. As a recent Pew Research Poll shows, our allies are noticing. Let's compare those numbers to how the world, our allies in particular, viewed us at the end of Obama's presidency:

Confidence
in Obama: 64% yes, 23% no (net +41%)
in Trump: 27% yes, 70% no (net -43%)
Difference: Obama +84%/Trump -84%

Views of U.S.
Obama: 64% favorable, 26% unfavorable (net +38%)
Trump: 50% favorable, 43% unfavorable (net +7%)
Difference: Obama +31%/Trump -31%

Allies' Approval
Australia: Obama 84%, Trump 54% (Obama +30%)
Canada: Obama 83%, Trump 39% (Obama +44%)
France: Obama 84%, Trump 38% (Obama +46%)
Germany: Obama 86%, Trump 30% (Obama +56%)
Greece: Obama 41%, Trump 36% (Obama +5%)
Italy: Obama 68%, Trump 52% (Obama +16%)
Japan: Obama 78%, Trump 67% (Obama +11%)
Mexico: Obama 49%, Trump 32% (Obama +17%)
Netherlands: Obama 92%, Trump 34% (Obama +58%)
Philippines: Obama 94%, Trump 83% (Obama +11%)
South Korea: Obama 88%, Trump 80% (Obama +8%)
Spain: Obama 75%, Trump 42% (Obama +33%)
United Kingdom: Obama 79%, Trump 50% (Obama +29%)\
Averages: Obama 77%, Trump 49% (Obama +28%)

So there you have it. Internationally, the view of the U.S. has dropped 31 points between Obama and Trump's presidencies. Not only that, there's an astronomical 84-point gap between these two leaders as far as international confidence in them goes. Lastly, amongst thirteen of our biggest allies, approval has dropped 28 points from our last president to our current one. It looks like, when Donald Trump said he intended to "make America great again," he really meant he intended to make America hated again.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2018/10/01/trumps-international-ratings-remain-low-especially-among-key-allies/

http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...