Respect for the U.S. Has Soared Around the Globe Since Biden Became Pres.

Joe Biden’s presidency has restored America’s standing in the world’s eyes in a dramatic manner according to new polling.

While Biden has only been in office for six months, the median approval rating of the US leadership has soared to 49 percent, a number not seen since the beginning of former President Barack Obama’s term in office. Trump had a 30 percent approval rating at the end of his presidency.

“The Trump administration claimed a few foreign policy successes in its final year, such as striking a peace deal with the Taliban to bring the then 18-year war in Afghanistan to a close and brokering normalization of relations between Israel and a number of Arab states,” Gallup explained. “But missed opportunities to engage with the rest of the world during all four years — particularly during the pandemic — likely overshadowed any potential goodwill and help explain the 30% approval rating at the end of Trump’s term.”

“In the first few hours of his presidency, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and halted Trump’s decision to leave the World Health Organization. And, in his first foreign policy speech as president, Biden vowed to repair U.S. alliances through diplomacy and restore the image of the U.S.,” they continued.

“These words and actions likely reassured many longtime U.S. allies and the international community at large and may have contributed to the surge in approval ratings across most of the 46 countries and territories surveyed through the first half of 2021.”

In almost every country, the approval rating soared by at least 10 percent. In several European countries, it rebounded by over 40 percent. The ratings shot up 38 percent in Canada.

The ratings did drop sharply in one country after Trump left office: Russia.

(Bil Browning is the Editor-in-Chief of LGBTQ Nation. His personal papers and LGBT activism memorabilia are included in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History archives.)