As it becomes clear that the General Election will be between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the international community is reacting to that race in different ways. In most countries Hillary enjoys huge margins of support, enthusiasm for her, while Trump is viewed with fright and disdain. The one notable exception is Putin-led Russia, where Trump seems well regarded.
Highlights:
Surveys overseas show Hillary Clinton is by far the favorite candidate for U.S. president.
Trump scares much of the rest of the world
Europe loves Hillary — except for the Russians
Now that American voters are drawing a clearer outline of November’s presidential contest, the rest of the world’s opinion about who should become the next president of the United States is also turning crystal-clear. With a couple of notable exceptions, the verdict is all-but unanimous: Just about everywhere, people want Hillary Clinton to replace President Obama.
That is the undeniable and overwhelming impression one hears when exploring opinions in different parts of the globe. I heard it asking individuals of a wide variety of backgrounds while traveling in several countries. But don’t take my word for it.
A recent poll of people in 20 countries — the G20 group of the world’s largest economies — confirmed it. In all the countries polled, Clinton beat Trump by wide margins. The only exception was Russia, where Trump beats Hillary by more than 20 points when pollsters asked whom they want to see as the next U.S. president. In China, there’s ambivalence.
Everywhere else, Clinton out polled Trump by enormous margins: in Mexico she beat him by 54 percent, in South Korea by 37, in France by 30, in Japan by 27. The list goes on with similar results from South America to East Asia.
Here is the actual G20 poll:
Hillary is the top pick everywhere, except for Russia
YouGov research for Handelsblatt Global Edition across the G20 group of nations reveals that Donald Trump is the preferred choice for US President in only one country: Russia
New YouGov research of over 20,000 adults in every G20 country for Handelsblatt Global Edition reveals Russia is the only country of the G20 major economies where people would rather Donald Trump was the next President of the US than Hillary Clinton. And by a long way – Trump leads Clinton by 21 points in Russia, while Hillary has a lead of more than 21 points over Trump in 15 other countries.
Perhaps least surprisingly of all, Hillary Clinton's lead over Mr Trump is highest in Mexico, the country which a President Trump would screen behind a concrete wall along the US southern border. She leads Trump there by 54 points, scores ahead of the other G20 countries.
Hillary's smallest lead over Bernie Sanders comes from Canada, but even then she leads by 17 points.
As we can see here, citizens of nations everywhere in the industrialized world prefer Hillary over Trump by large margins, especially strong in South America and Europe. Germany is strongly behind Hillary (the country I was born in and grew up in). By a 36% margin over Trump. Absolute landslide. All of Europe and pretty much the rest of the world (except for Russia) is strongly rooting for Hillary against Trump.
Also interesting, but unrelated to the Hillary vs. Trump race, were the findings on economic satisfaction across the G20 nations. I’ll include it here as a point of possible interest, as it also somewhat relates to the US election:
While India, the UK and Germany have higher economic satisfaction rates, the US is at #4 with a relatively high economic satisfaction rate. That seems to be confirmed by Obama’s recent spike in approval rates for his presidency, which has been much more positive than negative for a while now. No doubt that is due to relatively good economic performance over an extended period of time. It is a good sign for the Hillary vs. Trump battle in the fall, as overall satisfaction with the economy would lead more people to choose to continue Obama’s economy rather than blowing it all up and starting over.
Back to the original article:
Now that it seems increasingly like the election will pit Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, the whole world is really watching, and the overwhelming reaction is widespread rejection of Trump in most quarters, along with palpable enthusiasm for the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.
The distinct sentiment I encountered matches the findings of another survey in which pollsters asked Europeans how they would feel if each of the top candidates won the election. Europeans chose Hillary Clinton as their favorite by a landslide. The main feelings they predicted for themselves if Hillary Clinton becomes president: relieved, optimistic, happy. If Trump wins: afraid, disappointed, sad.
That mentioned survey is here:
Europe would elect Hillary Clinton by a landslide
If Europeans had a vote in the US 2016 election they would choose Hillary Clinton by a landslide – and they are terrified of a President Trump
As an average of YouGov's polls in Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland Hillary Clinton has a huge lead of 32 points over Bernie Sanders (46% to 14%). 6% say they would vote for Donald Trump if they had a vote and he was on the ballot.
Bernie Sanders does best in Norway, a beacon of progressivism to many, where 22% say they would vote for him if they could and he was on the ballot. Hillary Clinton, who may benefit from name recognition, does best in Germany (54%) and Denmark (54%).
Europe is terrified at the prospect of President Donald Trump, the odds of which are now only 3/1 for gamblers. Asked to say how they would feel if Trump were elected in November, the most likely response is fear (46%), followed by disappointment (40%). 27% say they would be sad and the same proportion say they would be angry.
Fear, Disappointment, Anger.
.
.
As we see here, Trump invokes the following feelings among Europeans, in order of strength: Afraid, Disappointed, Sad, Angry, Pity, Amused. Hillary invokes these feelings, in order of strength: Relieved, Optimistic, Happy, Indifferent, Excited.
The most likely responses to the thought of President Hillary are relief (40%) and optimism (40%), indicating her support from Europe has as much to do with blocking opposition as endorsement for the candidate herself.
Asked to say which candidates would do best on a number of different fronts, again Hillary comes out as the clear leader in every European country. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, who has framed controversial policies such as temporarily banning Muslims from the US around counter-terrorism, only 12% say his presidency would be best at tackling international terrorism.
Hillary wins on all measures. Strongest on “Improving US relations with Europe” and “Promoting peace in the world”. Also very strong on “Combating climate change” and “Improving the US economy”.
Back to the Herald article:
I found that combination of anticipation and apprehension in conversations in Arab states, where I was surprised to see positive sentiment for Hillary not only among women, which I expected, but also among men, and among people of all ages. I’ve heard the same in conversations with Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans.
In Israel, where most people believe President Obama’s foreign policy, particularly his nuclear deal with Iran, made them less safe, Clinton is also the top choice according to surveys, even though she helped lay the ground for the Iran deal.
Over the years I have probed global opinions about U.S. elections, but have never found the combination I see today, near-uniform excitement for one candidate and utter disdain combined with fear for another.
Never found before with the international community: Near uniform excitement for one candidate (Hillary) and utter disdain combined with fear for another (Trump).
One thing is sure: The international community stands with us, strongly, in the battle Hillary vs. Trump, like they have never before in any other Democrat vs. Republican general election.