People around the world are apparently trusting the United States less and less.
The 2019 Best Countries rankings reveal America has steadily slipped in a global assessment of its trustworthiness during the Trump era, despite holding steady at No. 8 in the overall country rankings. The rankings, a characterization of 80 countries based on a survey of more than 20,000 global citizens, ask respondents to answer how closely they related each of the countries to a series of terms. Respondents were given no further specifications of the term “trustworthy,” so interpretation of the word was left to them.
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At its highest point, the U.S. reached No. 17 in the trustworthiness ranking in 2016 — though the Best Countries rankings only took 60 countries into account at that time. In subsequent years, the nation lost ground, ranking No. 23 in 2017, No. 25 in 2018 and landing at No. 27 this year. The shift is the latest in global findings that suggest a diminishing standing for the U.S. among the world’s top nations.
President Donald Trump’s leadership has proved polarizing from its start. A poll conducted as part of the 2017 U.S. News Best Countries study found more than 70 percent of survey respondents lost respect for U.S. leadership as a result of the toxic nature of the 2016 presidential election, while a more recent Pew Research Center study from October showed people still have less confidence in Trump than four other world leaders. And although members of the Trump administration have stressed America is globally respected, additional analyses have suggested international confidence in Trump is low.
A weakened sense of trustworthiness was not cast over all of North America, however, with Canada taking the top spot for trustworthiness in the 2019 ranking. America’s neighbor to the north was followed by Switzerland, Denmark, New Zealand and Norway in the top five. At the bottom of the ranking, Ukraine landed No. 80 in trustworthiness, joined by Nigeria, Myanmar, Iraq and Lebanon in the bottom five.
Below are the 10 countries perceived to be the most trustworthy, and more country-related rankings can be found here.
| Country | Trustworthy Rank | Best Countries Overall Rank |
| Canada | 1 | 3 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 1 |
| Denmark | 3 | 13 |
| New Zealand | 4 | 12 |
| Norway | 5 | 9 |
| Sweden | 6 | 6 |
| Australia | 7 | 7 |
| Finland | 8 | 14 |
| Netherlands | 9 | 11 |
| Luxembourg | 10 | 19 |
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America Falls in Trustworthy Countries Ranking Under Trump originally appeared on usnews.com
