Europeans’ views of the United States dimmed sharply in recent months, something that can be directly attributed to shock over the response to back-to-back mass shootings and the Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion rights with its reversal of Roe v. Wade.
On Wednesday, the analysis firm Morning Consult released the results of a recent survey it conducted on how Europeans see the United States. What it found was that the U.S. brand was losing its luster as Europeans watched their American counterparts experience rampant violence as well as many abortion rights for women across the country.
According to the survey, reputation in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain deteriorated in the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 that saw 22 people killed. Exactly a month later, the Supreme Court ruled to overturn the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade that guaranteed the right to an abortion, prompting another notable drop in Europeans’ positive views of the U.S.
This development marked a serious setback for the U.S.’ reputation among its closest allies and trade partners.
During former President Donald Trump’s tenure, Europeans soured remarkably on how they perceived the U.S. Trump’s broadsides against the European Union on trade and his criticism of Europeans’ refusal to increase defense spending to NATO standards did not endear him to many Europeans.
President Joe Biden’s arrival in the White House was welcomed by many Europeans, who were eager to see Trump go. Last year, a Pew Research Center survey showed that positive views of the U.S. sharply increased by the halfway point of Biden’s first year in office. In the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, views on the U.S. became more positive as Europeans saw Washington rally its allies against Moscow.
But the back-to-back events with Uvalde and Roe erased much of the favorability gains won by the U.S. for its response to the Ukraine war, according to the Morning Consult. Instead, they highlighted the old fault lines that divided the U.S. from Europe before either Trump or Biden.
The rate of gun violence and access to assault weapons in the U.S. has long been alien to Europeans and is indeed something of a global outlier. Abortion rights are also guaranteed throughout the E.U, with the exceptions of Poland and Malta where rights to one are stricter.
A decline in the positive image of the U.S. in the eyes of citizens of its closest allies is not without potential drawbacks.
Studies have shown that a country’s negative image can affect its standing in a given market and can affect its exports to that market. It also carries risks for tourism, given that a country’s image has been shown to influence potential visitors’ desire to make a trip there.
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