American Elections from the Outside In

If you live in the United States, you’re probably pretty aware that an election is coming up. In fact, if you’ve been paying any attention at all, it’s pretty much the only thing people can talk about. The year 2020 has been an anomaly in terms of normal living, and the cultural revolution that has occurred has added a new layer to the stakes of this election: young Americans have taken to social media to spread awareness of social justice issues, Americans of all ages are protesting in the streets for Black Lives Matter and climate action, and jobless Americans have fought for aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are like most Americans, President Donald Trump (whether you support him or not) is always on your mind. But what if you live somewhere else?

Even for those living outside the US, whoever is elected as the leader of the U.S. has an immense impact on country-specific and global issues, including climate change, global health, movement of refugees, and other crises. While within the U.S., much controversy surrounds Trump’s relations with other countries (like Ukraine, Russia, and Israel), the view from the outside looking in is not immediately clear. Exploring this issue, the Pew Research Center published a number of studies in 2020 studying how other countries view the United States (Wike et al. (a)). The studies discovered that in countries where Trump is highly involved in that country’s governmental relations, such as the Philippines and Israel, their confidence ratings in President Trump are quite high, 77% and 71% of adults respectively -- in essence, a strong vote of support for relations with the U.S and in particular with this president. 

But why does this international support matter? The international view of the U.S. is important because relations with other countries have an impact on our free trade, on our role as peacekeeper in global security, and more. These relations with other countries often are highly related with their perceptions of the 2020 U.S. election as well as varying support of President Trump and his policies (Wike et al. (b); Poushter).

For some countries, support or opposition depends on whether or not President Trump’s policies positively or negatively affect their country -- their economy, their security or their welfare. For example, one of  Trump’s key foreign policies is building the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a policy extremely unpopular with the Mexican people. In Mexico, 89% of the population lack confidence in President Trump, reflecting in large part contentious issues such as the border wall, which are seen as detrimental to the country (Poushter). In contrast, in countries with high Trump approval ratings, such as Israel, support for Trump reflects the direct benefit to Israelis of Trump’s U.S. foreign policies, such as moving the country’s recognized capital to Jerusalem (Poushter).

For other countries, their support or opposition depends on how President Trump’s policies and responses to international crises impact the global community (Wike et al. (b)). In the view of many developed countries, Trump’s stance toward nuclear policy with North Korea and the U.S. decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords, for example, make the U.S. a poor global citizen; thus, these countries harbor large anti-Trump sentiment because of the effect these and other Trump policies have on the international community and the well-being of global citizens. An article from a London-based news outlet, The Independent, ran an opinion piece titled “America should allow other countries to vote in the 2020 election”. This editorial unpacks the global impact of American policy decisions and presents the idea that since American politics impacts the economy of other countries’ and therefore their welfare, they should have a say in who is in charge (Michallon). While the idea of having citizens of the world vote in the US presidential election may seem outlandish, the proposal likely reflects a strong desire on the part of citizens of other nations for the American president to once again act in the interests of global citizens and not merely for Americans. This has been a precedent for American presidents since Roosevelt to Obama, and widely perceived as being reversed by the Trump administration (Buttigieg and Gordon). To rectify this wavering in global opinion, a starting point for these actions should be for the American president to exert global leadership in the face of both the climate change and COVID-19 crises. 

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Works Cited

Buttigieg, Pete, and Philip H Gordon. “Present at the Destruction of U.S. Power and Influence.” Foreign Policy, 14 July 2020, foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/14/trump-biden-foreign-policy-alliances/. 

Michallon, Clemence. “Opinion: America Should Allow Other Countries to Vote in the 2020 Election.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 22 Mar. 2019, www.independent.co.uk/voices/2020-us-election-vote-trump-campaign-a8836076.html. 

Poushter, Jacob. “How People around the World See the U.S. and Donald Trump in 10 Charts.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 26 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/08/how-people-around-the-world-see-the-u-s-and-donald-trump-in-10-charts/. 

“Uncertainty Dominates US Presidential Campaign's Final Stretch.” Euronews, 31 Aug. 2020, www.euronews.com/2020/08/31/uncertainty-dominates-us-presidential-campaign-s-final-stretch. 

“US Election 2020: A Really Simple Guide.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Sept. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53785985. 

Wike, Richard, et al (a). “Trump Ratings Remain Low Around the World, While Views of U.S. Stay Mostly Favorable.” Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, Pew Research Center, 31 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/01/08/trump-ratings-remain-low-around-globe-while-views-of-u-s-stay-mostly-favorable/. 

Wike, Richard, et al (b). “U.S. Image Plummets Internationally as Most Say Country Has Handled Coronavirus Badly.” Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, Pew Research Center, 21 Sept. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/09/15/us-image-plummets-internationally-as-most-say-country-has-handled-coronavirus-badly/. 

Woolf, Nicky, et al. “Trump's U.K. Visit Protests Are So Hilarious Because the President Is so Easy to Mock.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 24 July 2019, www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-u-k-visit-protests-are-so-hilarious-because-ncna1013656.