Latin America Doesn't Like Trump

Gallup shows Donald Trump's approval in Latin America going over a cliff. In the aggregate, 16% of Latin Americans approve of him. The most approval comes from Venezuela and is born of desperation rather than admiration. Only six countries have approval of 20% or higher. As you might guess, it's quite hard to find Mexicans who approve of the job he's doing. I wonder who they are.

With its "America First" foreign policy, the Trump administration has made it clear that it will pursue immigration controls and border security measures. However, this region remains an important partner in trade and security for the United States, and striking a balance in years to come may prove difficult when Latin Americans as a whole disapprove of Trump's job performance in his first year. 

The same is true for how Latin Americans think the president will affect the relationship between their country and the U.S., with far more residents believing Trump will weaken the relationship compared with those who believed the same about Obama. Given Trump's recent actions and alleged comments regarding refugees and immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador, the future of these partnerships remains tenuous.

This is disastrously bad. I think it is safe to say that on the whole, Latin America sees Trump as someone who is likely to screw things up, possibly in ways that could directly hurt them. And there is good reason to think that way.