Now that it’s been a week since the election of arguably the most polarizing figure in U.S. political history, everybody around the world, from journalists to arm chair politicians to bartenders in Cologne, Germany, has an opinion.
Locals in the city of Nogales, Mexico—a border town—have greeted Trump’s triumph with a collection of shock, defiance, and a lot of laughter, according to a report by The Guardian.
Germans have also been laughing at the many Trumpisms. Jan Böhmermann, the German version of Jon Stewart, parodied “The Donald” movement in an hour-long documentary on ZDF.
In a similar vein, a French hotel expert we spoke to, laughed, “I don’t feel threatened as a Frenchman, and I don’t link my political views to my traveling plans unless the country is ran by a totalitarian state or is at war on its land.”
That said, some people see similarities between Trump’s nationalistic, right-wing bravado and totalitarianism. One Turkish woman, who wants to remain anonymous, said she wasn’t expecting the results, but expressed worry because of a similar right-wing uprising in Turkey. She compares the situation in the U.S. to that in Turkey and blames the media coverage—or lack thereof—for “ignoring issues that really matter”—like health care solutions and infrastructure. Though she’s uneasy with the results, she said, “Trump would not affect my decision to go to U.S….unless the visa restrictions really change for us, since Turkey is a Muslim country. Then I would not want to bother.”
A Canadian from British Columbia says Trump isn’t a problem as much as Republican ideology. “My honest thoughts on Trump is that he’s a complete asshole and he scares me, but the other Republicans are what really scare me. I’m mostly worried about the Supreme Court nominations. U.S. politics has such a huge effect on the world, so it’s scary.”
That said, Trump does have his share of supporters abroad.
Putinist Russians love the man.
A survey of Israelis revealed slight support for Trump over Clinton. This is most likely because of Trump’s claims that the U.S. and Israel share an unbreakable bond.
In Serbia, both Nationalists and leftist supporters of Slavoj Žižek celebrated the results. Serbs see the Trump’s victory as an opportunity to get a better deal from U.S. foreign policy under Trump. Well, that’s at least part of the reason, another reason is many nationalistic Serbs blame Hillary as the mastermind behind the 1999 NATO bombings.
What the world sees in the future, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tom is a travel writer, part-time hitchhiker, and he’s currently trying to imitate Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? but with more sunscreen and jorts.