Trump and the Image of the United States in Latin America

Abstract

In our research, we focus on the image of the United States in Latin America. We use mainly data from Latinobarómetro, and we analyse Obama’s last year and Trump’s first year in the presidency in 18 countries in Latin America. We use logistic regression to reach conclusions. We also analyse Trump’s tweets to see his Twitter rhetoric. We find that Trump’s election has strongly worsened the image of the United States in the public opinion of Latin America. However, we find that people that believe more in democracy, the free market and national political institutions are more likely to have a positive opinion of the United States. Also, we find that the more left-wing citizens are, the more likely they have a bad opinion of the United States. This article contributes to the theory of trust and research on the public opinion across nations. Also, this article offers insights into the topical research agenda concerning the influence of political ideology on public opinion.

Political shock and international students: Estimating the “Trump effect”

“…Students spend a lot of time and money preparing to study abroad. When the US becomes less appealing, these students will likely select other destinations rather than cancel going abroad due to the “sunk cost.” Meanwhile, as the victory of Trump caused global public opinions toward the US to decline dramatically (Haman and Školník, 2021; Carreras et al, 2021; Bateson and Weintraub, 2022), it led to a significant increase in the EU’s popularity in Europe (Minkus et al, 2019). As other top and popular destination countries also provide high-quality educational venues and maintain the same level of student restrictions in terms of visa policies regarding entry, re-entry, and post-graduation employment, these countries benefit as alternative destinations.…”

“…First, the Trump effects on various outcomes have received wide attention in the news, social media, and academic research. The unexpected victory of Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election has generated an increasing number of studies exploring outcomes such as racial discrimination (Newman et al, 2021), public health (Smith, 2022), EU’s popularity (Minkus et al, 2019), the reputation of the United States abroad (Carreras et al, 2021; Haman and Školník, 2021; Bateson and Weintraub, 2022), trade protectionist sentiment and policy (Coupe and Shepotylo, 2021; Essig et al, 2021), and the financial and currency markets (Cunha and Kern, 2022; Slaski, 2021). Our research provides a useful addition to that literature by analyzing a different type of outcome.…”