article: That is, the credo pushed by successive presidents that the United States is a beacon of democracy, an exemplar of human rights, an indispensable country imbued with special values and beliefs that grants it the moral authority and national self-belief to influence and admonish other countries, friend and foe alike. Donald Trump, rather than being heralded as the leader of free world, has been pilloried. By protesters who took to the streets - and snow - from Australia to Antarctica as part of more than 600 protests worldwide on the first weekend of his presidency. By satirists who came up with the "Netherlands Second" viral video - and all its other cheeky iterations - in response to Trump's "America First" doctrine. By models at Milan Fashion Week who paraded on the catwalk wearing the now iconic pink pussy hats that first appeared on the Washington Mall at the massive women's march. By graphic designers who have created a gallery of scolding magazine covers, including, most shockingly, Der Spiegel's depiction of the US president holding aloft the severed head of the Statue of Liberty. When Jimmy Kimmel joked during his Oscars opening monologue that Donald Trump had made 225 countries hate America, he was exaggerating. As with all well-aimed satire, however, it contained more than a kernel of truth. It is a measure of Trump's unpopularity that George W Bush, the last US president to attract such international ire, is being rehabilitated in the global mind as a cool-headed statesman and staunch defender of American press freedom. Last year, at the height of the presidential campaign, a Pew Research Center poll suggested that 85% of Europeans have "no confidence" in Donald Trump to do the right thing as president. A poll conducted by Gallup International Association suggested that, were the US election to be held in 45 foreign countries, Hillary Clinton would have won a landslide victory in every single one, with the sole exception of Russia. The French President Francois Hollande even said the brash billionaire made people "want to retch". Though international leaders are now more respectful, few could be described as being genuinely admiring. It will take more than his speech before the joint session of Congress, in which Trump sought to stabilise his presidency, to assuage global concerns. During his inaugural address, Donald Trump paid lip service to the notion of American exceptionalism, though he did not use the phrase. "We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example," he declared. "We will shine for everyone to follow." But rather than painting a picture of sunny American uplands, his inaugural address sketched out something darker and more dystopian: a country marred by poverty-stricken and crime-ridden inner cities and "rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape". The speech will be remembered not for his brief invocation of American exceptionalism, but rather his depiction of "American carnage" and his pledge to put "America First." It was bunker America rather than beacon America. In his speech to the joint
summary: When a German Chancellor feels the need to explain the refugee convention to an American president, the speaker of British House of Commons says the leader of its closest ally is not welcome to address parliament, China positions itself as the grown-up in the room by chiding him for his blunt Twitter diplomacy and the botched travel ban is denounced not just by US adversaries, such as Iran, but allies, such as France and Canada, is it not time to sound the death-knell of American exceptionalism?