Is the united states respected by europeans
Executive summary
The short answer: respect is fractured — not wholesale rejection, but deeply eroded and conditional. Multiple recent polls show a sharp decline in European public trust and warmth toward the United States, even as elites and leaders admit the transatlantic link remains strategically important and economically intertwined [1] [2] [3].
1. Public sentiment: a precipitous drop in warmth and trust
Across a range of surveys, Europeans’ favorable views of the United States have fallen noticeably since the Trump years and into 2025–26, with some polls finding only single-digit shares who now describe the U.S. as an “ally” and others reporting that more Europeans see America as a rival or even an enemy than as a friend [4] [5] [6]; ECFR polling finds the most common European view that the U.S. is no longer an ally but a “necessary partner” to be worked with strategically [1].
2. Not uniform: variation by country, cohort and time
The decline is not monolithic: earlier surveys under Biden showed warming in 2021 (Atlantic Council) and some countries still express favorable views or see the U.S. as the most influential actor in world affairs [7] [2]; but more recent ECFR and GMF polling documents converging skepticism across traditional Atlanticist and mainstream political constituencies that Americans’ reliability has dropped since 2021 [1] [2].
3. Why respect has frayed — policy reversals, perceived unreliability and politics
Analysts and commentators trace the deterioration to visible U.S. policy ruptures — withdrawals from multilateral bodies, tariff and trade tensions, partisan volatility in U.S. politics, and a 2026 U.S. National Defense Strategy that signals less automatic primacy — all of which create a perception in Europe that U.S. commitments are less dependable [8] [9] [10] [11].
4. Strategic realism: necessary partner, not protector automatically
Even where public warmth has dropped, European policy circles continue to treat the United States as strategically vital and culturally important, while simultaneously pushing for greater European autonomy and a larger share of responsibility for defense and industrial capacity — a shift from reliance toward partnership and burden-sharing [12] [10] [11].
5. Power, leverage and elite responses: from outrage to tactical pushback
European leaders have publicly castigated recent U.S. moves and begun to coordinate “unflinching, united and proportional” responses in trade and diplomacy, demonstrating both political displeasure and economic leverage given the enormous daily transatlantic flows of goods and services [3] [13]. Think tanks and policy pieces argue Europe must adapt: some urge reasserting EU sovereignty and building a European pillar inside NATO, while others warn against wholesale divorce from a still-powerful American partner [10] [11].
6. Bottom line: respect is conditional and contested
Respect is not a binary; current evidence shows Europeans are less trusting and less inclined to call the U.S. an ally than a few years ago, yet they still recognize American strategic weight and economic ties and often prefer cooperation over confrontation — resulting in a transactional, cautious kind of respect rather than the automatic confidence of the Cold War and early postwar era [1] [2] [6]. Reporting and think-tank pieces carry implicit agendas — some emphasize decline to argue for European autonomy (Carnegie, ECFR), others highlight pragmatic recovery under different U.S. leadership (Atlantic Council) — and those competing frames shape both public perceptions and policy responses [11] [7].