Has Joe Biden restored the world's confidence in the U.S.?

How does the world feel about American President Joe Biden as the leader of the United States? Do they trust him more or less than Donald Trump?

The United States is far more popular internationally under Joe Biden’s leadership than it ever was when former president Donald Trump held the reigns of power according to a new poll that looked at how the current president is viewed on the global stage. 

Despite the many questions about Biden’s age and his less-than-desirable approval rating at home, the current President of the United States and his administration's leadership are a lot more popular globally than it ever was when Trump was in office. 

A recent Pew Research Center survey polled 27,285 individuals across twenty-three countries from all around the world and found that Biden got favorable views on his international performance even though responses differed greatly in some countries. 

When asked about their confidence in Biden’s ability to handle world affairs, a median of 54% of respondents said they trusted Biden “to do the right thing in international affairs” while 39% of people surveyed said they did not trust the president to do the right thing. 

The starkest differences came from Poland and Hungary where Pew noted that 8-in-10 Poles said they had confidence in Biden while only 19% of Hungarians surveyed stated they trusted the American president to do the right thing in international affairs. 

Differences here could come from how each nation has approached Russia’s invasion. Where Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in their fight to push back the Kremlin’s armies, Hungary has proven lukewarm on Kyiv and shifted towards Russia. 

“America’s actions on the world stage have often shaped its global image, and as the survey highlights, public opinion about U.S. foreign policy is often complex, with people seeing both positive and negative sides to American power,” Pew noted in its report. 

Respondents overwhelmingly said that they believed the United States interfered in the affairs of other countries with 82% reporting this was done “a great deal or fair amount” but also said they “believe the U.S. contributes to peace and stability around the world.”

Interestingly, views about the United States have remained roughly consistent with poll findings from the previous year but Pew noted America’s favorability rating did decline “somewhat” in Sweden, South Korea, Canada, and Germany. 

However, the more interesting finding of the survey was the conclusion that Biden really did return America’s popularity abroad after Trump brought the country’s popularity abroad to all-time lows. Let’s look at data from France to see how this phenomenon played out. 

In France, the highest rating of confidence in a recent American president was recorded after Barack Obama’s first year in office where he scored 91% and stayed in the mid to high-80s every year of his tenure afterward, a number which plummeted after Trump.

After Trump’s first year in office, French confidence in the American president dropped to just 14% and hit the country’s all-time low the following year at 9%. Trump rebounded to 20% in 2019 then dropped to 11% in 2020, only recovering once Biden took office. 

French confidence that the U.S. president would do the right thing in international affairs jumped to 74% after Biden’s first year in office but has dwindled down to 47% in Pew’s latest survey, a number still far higher in France than Trump’s best year as president. 

This pattern holds true for every country Pew has surveyed, even in countries where the former president enjoyed a great deal of popular support like Nigeria, Kenya, and Israel.

Confidence in Biden’s ability to do the right thing in world affairs has come out ahead of Trump in all 23 countries surveyed, a situation that reveals just how unpopular Trump was on the global stage compared to the presidents who came before and after him. 

“In each country, current ratings for Biden are higher than those for Trump,” Pew wrote in its report on their 2023 survey—a statement which should give any American voter pause when they enter the ballot box in 2024.