Do Americans really know how much the world hates us?

Do Americans really know how much the world hates us?
The global romance with America turned sour years ago. Now the world's ready for a divorce

By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published May 31, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Afew days ago, I put one of my college-age children on a plane to Berlin, on the way to a month-long theater intensive. It was a wistful and exciting moment, a rite of passage for many privileged middle-class parents around this time of year. It felt like the kind of experience that’s supposed to remind you, amid the relentless passage of time and the chaotic info-jumble of contemporary life, to try to be fully present wherever you are. (I wouldn’t say that’s my very best skill.)

....(snip)....

If being an American of approximately liberal inclinations in the 21st century seems to require constant public apologies, some disgruntled Yanks actually are exploring their escape options. Applications for foreign citizenship have reportedly exploded over the past couple of years, for reasons I hardly need to explain. Nearly 20,000 Americans applied for Irish citizenship in 2025, while about 9,000 applied for British citizenship, a considerably more difficult and expensive process. Both were record highs. (No judgment here: I’ve held Irish citizenship most of my life, and my kids now have second passports as well.)

....(snip)....

But what’s really happening, I suspect, is much bigger than a minor demographic shift among a handful of educated libs. It’s more that the deeply ingrained toxin of American narcissism — the conviction, long shared across nearly the full range of political opinion, that this is an exceptional or “indispensable” nation, endowed by God or history or Thomas Jefferson with a unique destiny — has begun to fade.

....(snip)....

One of my Irish cousins, a middle-class professional who has visited the U.S. many times, texted me after Trump took office last year to say that for the first time she found America and Americans actively frightening. (“Pardon my generalization,” she added.) I didn’t have much to say in response. More recently, she forwarded me a report from the Irish Times about Irish students deciding not to apply for the J1 visa this year, which allows them to work summer jobs in the U.S. (My cousin did that herself, some years ago.) “Trump has probably done me a favor by making me rethink the idea of going to the U.S.,” one 19-year-old told the paper, “because Europe is so much better in every way.” .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/31/do-americans-really-know-how-much-the-world-hates-us/