Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: Global perceptions of the United States have turned negative just a few months after President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, according to the world’s largest democracy survey, reported usnews.com.
The annual Democracy Perception Index, conducted by the global polling organisation Nira Data in collaboration with the nonprofit Alliance of Democracies Foundation, found that the US leader has a largely negative perception rating among those surveyed as he continues to test the limits of executive authority, the news portal report said.
The project reached more than 110,000 people across 100 countries– from Algeria to Zimbabwe – between April 9 and April 23.
Trump has a net negative perception in 82 per cent of the countries surveyed, which is a significantly worse share than those of both Russian President Vladimir Putin (61 pc) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (44 pc). Analysts found the US President to be the most globally recognisable leader, though, with 85 per cent of respondents saying they know who Trump is. Putin was just behind him, at 81 per cent.
For the US as a whole, less than half (45 pc) of countries held a net positive image of it – a 31-point decrease from 2024. The nation’s net global perception rating also fell from +22 pc last year to -5 pc in 2025, which is just above Russia’s (-9 pc). China’s net rating, at +14 pc, is much higher than that of its recent trade war foe.
“I’m not surprised that perceptions of the United States have fallen so sharply, although I find it reassuring that support for the rules-based international order remains strong around the world,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the founder of the Alliance for Democracies Foundation, former NATO Secretary General and former Danish Prime Minister, said in a statement.
The index is not the only recent study that has taken a critical look at the status of democracy, particularly in the United States. Researchers at Sweden’s VDem Institute earlier this year devoted a whole section of their annual report studying democracies and autocracies around the world to the US.
In fact, the founding Director of the institute told US News in an interview that if trends described by the authors continue throughout 2025, the United States’ Government regime would “definitely” be reclassified from its status as a democracy in next year’s report.
