Has Trump Ruined America’s Reputation? US Loses Nation Brands Index Top Spot

The United States lost its top spot as the country with the "best brand" image, according to a new study whose results were released Thursday.

“The power and quality of each country's ‘brand image’” was measured by the Nation Brands Index (NBI) survey, which was conducted by German-based market research firm GfK and British political consultant Simon Anholt. The final NBI score was decided after collecting public opinion on 50 different countries on primarily six categories: its "people," "governance," "exports," "tourism," "investment and immigration," and "culture and heritage."

According to popular public opinion, the U.S. dropped to the sixth place while Germany rose to claim the prestigious first spot. Germany stood second in the same survey last year while the first place was held by the U.S. After just a year, the U.S. is lagging behind Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Japan.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was thrilled to learn of the results. "Germany's image no longer rests on our economic strength,” Gabriel said. “People think we're capable of much in the world.”

While it was good news for Germany, it was a less-than satisfactory result for the U.S., where the biggest change in the last 12 months was none other than Donald Trump getting elected as the president.

So why did the U.S. not only lose its top spot but fall 5 places in the survey?

One of the categories in which the U.S. performed worse than 2016 was “governance,” in which it dropped from 16th spot to 23rd. Speaking to broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Anholt said Trump’s incessant push of his “America First” agenda might have caused the upset seen in the poll.

“The loss of the US's image in the governance category is indicative of the Trump effect, which was triggered by President Trump's policies and his 'America First' message," he said.

Incidentally “governance” is one of the categories that helped Germany secure the top spot, apart from “investment and immigration.”

The NBI survey comes after a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in June found that Trump was ruining the image of U.S. in the rest of the world. For that particular study, Pew had approached people from 37 different countries to weigh in on their opinion of the POTUS. The results were overwhelming against Trump’s favor.

“The sharp decline in how much global public trust the U.S. president on the world stage is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada,” the study found.

In the Pew survey, the only two countries which had a favorable opinion of the U.S. were Russia and Israel.