Thanks to Trump, Germany supplants US as the country with the best global reputation

[CousinIT]

"Make America Great Again"? - turns out what Trump has done is the polar opposite of that. America WAS ALREADY GREAT. Trump DESTROYED it.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/world/nation-brand-ranking-trnd/index.html

(CNN)America's brand has taken a major hit in the age of Trump.

At least that's according to a survey that ranks the world's best nation brands.

The United States lands with an overall No. 6 ranking in the Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index, which measures 50 nations in multiple categories, including governance, exports, culture, people, tourism and immigration/investment. The United States was the overall No. 1 in 2016, but Germany took the top spot this year.

The source of America's big drop? President Donald Trump, says Simon Anholt, a political consultant who developed the brand survey more than a decade ago.

"We are witnessing a 'Trump effect,' following President Trump's focused political message of 'America First,' " Anholt said in a statement.

[defacto7]

1. Whatever DT says, whatevet DT has ever said,

he has and will always mean the polar opposite.
This is the soul of a pathological liar and psychopath .

[Cicada]

2. I respect Merkel as an awesome pol, but Germany aint perfect

Putin is right that she’s trying to damage Russia, probably a good idea but she is not sincere about what she is doing. And then Germany shoves unemployment onto other nations by refusing to permit sufficient domestic consumption. A kind of trade cheating.

I prefer the Scandinavian countries.

[defacto7]

3. I tend to agree.

[DFW]

6. Agreed that Germany is far from perfect

I've lived here long enough to know that. The all-powerful "civil" servants ("Beamten" ) who have their jobs for life, and are there mostly to say "no," and the widespread corruption just under the surface (though nowhere near what you find in Belgium or France) are not to be overlooked. But there is corruption and much swept under the rug in Scandinavia as well, and the Skinhead-Neo-Nazi movement in Sweden is downright scary.

If one looks only at the whole picture, including whether or not the governing party has even the lightest intention of "wanting to do the right thing," I would still say Merkel deserves the recognition she has received--and that we (the USA) deserve the drop in rank that we have received. The elevation of Trump and his cronies to the top of our government has released a Pandora's Box of our basest instincts rising to the level of national decision-making, and the worst possible people have been placed in positions where they can do the most damage.

Aaron Sorkin expressed it best through his fictional character Will McAvoy: "We're not the greatest country in the world any more."

[lpbk2713]

4. So Donnie, how's that MAGA thing working out for you?

I hope those mouth breathers who voted for him are proud of themselves.

[Doodley]

5. I told a Repug that US reputation is in tatters,

tourism is in recession because people don't want to come to America, and multi-national companies won't want to invest in a nation that acts like an asshole and sticks its fingers up to the rest of the world. He said he didn't care even if these things were true. Trump was putting America first and it didn't matter what anyone else outside America thought.