America is Losing its Superpower: The World's Trust

Remember a few months back when we didn’t have to worry about the safety of Social Security, when we weren’t anxious about a possible recession, and when we didn’t have to lose sleep at night knowing our private details rested in the hands of a 20-year-old nicknamed “Big Balls?”

In the weeks since President Trump unleashed Elon Musk’s DOGE crewmembers to chainsaw their way through our federal government, we have been losing any remaining trust we had in Trump’s ability to steer us in the right direction. In this, we are not alone. Other nations too are losing confidence in America.

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This nation’s trustworthiness was once its superpower. Although that trust declined during the Vietnam and Iraqi wars, it remained high enough that the nation was able to regain its stability and meet crises like the Covid pandemic that left other nations struggling to recover. The country’s reputation owed much to faith in the competence and integrity of our civil service and federal institutions.

That faith is now in grave danger. In 2017, before Donald Trump’s first term, Transparency International ranked the United States among the top 20 countries in the world for least corrupt government. Today the U.S. is posting its lowest score ever, tied with the Bahamas, an offshore financial center rocked by corruption scandals. Another index, the World Population Review, rated trust in the U.S. at 30.2 percent, behind Turkey and Russia.

https://www.postalley.org/2025/04/19/america-is-losing-its-superpower-the-worlds-trust/