Is the World Laughing at the United States?

Are they laughing?  In a word, no. Quite the contrary.

Most of the Earth’s population has historically counted on the U.S. to do the right thing when it comes to things like human rights and rule of law, and they take this quite seriously.

That’s why, when I interviewed a bunch of Swedes during Trump’s first term in the White House, they all agreed, “Trump may have 6% or 8% support in Sweden, but the vast majority of us simply feel sorry for you.  If a fascist had come to power in Ecuador or Mali, we would have said, ‘Well, what did you expect?’ But the United States of America?  No one ever thought it could ever happen there.”