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Global approval of the United States has rebounded under Joe Biden, survey finds

A median of 75% of respondents in 12 advanced economies expressed confidence in Biden’s global leadership, compared with 17% in President Donald Trump’s, the Pew Research Center survey found.

Joe Biden listens as first lady Jill Biden speaks to American service members at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, during the Bidens' trip abroad.
Joe Biden listens as first lady Jill Biden speaks to American service members at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, during the Bidens' trip abroad.Read morePatrick Semansky / AP

President Joe Biden has promised the world that “America is back.”

As he takes his first trip abroad as president, a Pew Research Center global survey released Thursday shows that many in advanced economies believe it.

Trust in the U.S. president fell to historic lows in most countries surveyed during Trump’s presidency, according to Pew.

Under Biden, it has soared. In the 12 countries surveyed both this year and last, a median of 75% of respondents expressed confidence in Biden to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” Pew found, compared with 17% for Trump last year. Sixty-two percent of respondents now have a favorable view of the United States vs. 34% at the end of Trump’s presidency.

“The election of Joe Biden as president has led to a dramatic shift in America’s international image,” the Pew report reads.

The findings come a day after Biden touched down in England on the first leg of a whirlwind trip through Europe. On his agenda: a meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Cornwall; a NATO summit in Brussels; and tête-à-têtes with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Biden cast his voyage as a sort of redemption tour — a chance to revitalize America’s strained alliances and rally like-minded democracies to “meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.”

The Pew findings suggest that he will encounter leaders whose publics are confident in his leadership and supportive of key foreign policy priorities.

» READ MORE: Biden to lay out U.S. plans for COVID-19 vaccine donations and urge world leaders to join

The United States’ favorability rating grew at least 23% from last year in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, and a majority of respondents in all four see the country positively.

Among all 16 publics surveyed this spring, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ranks just ahead of Biden in the percentage of respondents who said they trust the leader’s decision-making on world affairs, with a median score of 77%. But Biden, with 74%, garnered higher rates of confidence than French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“In many cases, however, the share who have confidence in Biden is not as high as the share who had confidence in [President Barack] Obama at the start or end of his presidency,” the Pew report notes.

A median of 89% of people approved of the United States rejoining the World Health Organization, and a median of 85% supported the U.S. rejoining the Paris climate agreement. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement was widely criticized among advanced economies. Since taking office, Biden has sought to position the U.S. as a global leader in fighting climate change.

Perceptions of the United States’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic have also improved. Still, among all the publics surveyed, a median of just 37% of respondents think the U.S. has done a good job. Many rate the U.S. below Germany, the WHO, China and the European Union in terms of pandemic response.

And signs of skepticism about the United States’ dependability remain.

Among the 16 publics Pew surveyed in 2021, majorities or pluralities described the U.S. as a “somewhat reliable” partner. The proportion of respondents who said the
U.S. is “very reliable” remained below 20% in every place.

And with the U.S. having the highest coronavirus death toll in the world, a divided America still licking its wounds after the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump still wielding political clout, the image of American democracy appears to have taken a lasting hit.

Attitudes are mixed about how well the U.S. political system functions, and in most surveyed publics, less than 10% of respondents said it works very well.

“Publics in the advanced economies surveyed are largely skeptical that democracy in the U.S. is a good example for other countries to follow,” the report reads.

Majorities in most places believe the U.S. “used to be a good example, but has not been in recent years,” while up to about a quarter reject the notion that it has ever been a model democracy. Young people were particularly skeptical in about half of places surveyed.

Most people surveyed continued to say the U.S. doesn’t factor the interests of countries like theirs into foreign policy decisions, though attitudes across Europe vary.

A majority of respondents in Asian-Pacific regions also said the U.S. discounts their interests, with the exception of Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was the first foreign leader Biden hosted at the White House.

NATO, meanwhile, has a median favorability rating of 61%, and positive views of the alliance are “at or near all-time highs across several member states,” the Pew report reads.

It’s a finding that will hearten leaders, including Biden, who seek to breathe fresh life into NATO next week. The alliance took a beating in recent years when Trump threatened to pull out of it and Macron declared that it was experiencing “brain death.”

Pew said its 2021 findings on the United States’ international image were based on data from nationally representative surveys of more than 16,000 adults in 16 advanced economies conducted over the phone from March to May. Findings related to the coronavirus pandemic also incorporated a survey of roughly 2,600 U.S. adults conducted in February 2021 using Pew’s American Trends Panel.