As Others See Us, by Bill Wanlund

The good news: Germans find the U.S. more trustworthy than Russia. The bad news? The Russians are the only major world actor the Germans trust less than the Americans, and not by much: According to a Deutschlandtrend survey of registered voters, conducted January 5-7 by German broadcaster ARD, France (with 78%) and the UK (74%) vie for top spot in the poll’s Trusted Partner category. Meanwhile, the U.S. (15%) and Russia (9%) bring up the rear. “The reputation of the US is at an all-time low,” the pollsters concluded. 

President Trump seems to be the lightning rod for German dissatisfaction. Eighty percent of respondents to the survey said as much, and many “are concerned that world politics is increasingly governed by ‘the law of the jungle.’” 

Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed the survey was conducted just days after the U.S. military had removed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power; suspicious minds may assume the chilled relations and Maduro’s extraction were related. Score one for the suspicious minds: 70 percent of the Germans surveyed call the action unjustified, and 50 percent believe Germany and the EU should strongly criticize America for it. 
 
A man is known by the company he keeps - Aesop

One group, however, believes Germany should temper any criticism of Trump over his adventuring in Venezuela. Fifty-eight percent of the members polled from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — Germany’s largest opposition party — believe that Germany should “exercise restraint” in its criticism of Trump’s action. (It should also be noted that voters representing the ruling government coalition led by the conservative CDU/CSU are themselves basically split on the question of how to respond to Trump: 48% want the government to voice strong disapproval, 43% would prefer a more moderate reaction.)

In the German-American Halcyon days of 2024, “Americans and Germans generally perceived the relationship between their countries as positive,” according to surveys conducted in both countries; 47 percent of Germans then regarded the U.S. as their most important partner.

Bill Wanlund is a PDCA Board Member, retired Foreign Service Officer, and freelance writer in the Washington, DC, area. His column, Worth Noting, appears occasionally in PD Today and the PDCA Blog; it seeks to address Public Diplomacy and related topics of interest to all.