Is Travel Going to Become More Difficult for Americans in the Age of Trump?
We're already seeing signs of a growing anti-U.S. sentiment.
Cristine Conner Naylor is an American, and since 2019, she’s been housesitting and pet sitting all over the world. But a few weeks ago, she applied for a pet sit in British Columbia, Canada, she received a blunt response: “No Americans need apply.”
Is this a sign of how Americans will be treated internationally now that Donald Trump has been sworn in a second time as President of the United States?
Last week, Trump posted this on social media:
But this is almost certainly the exact opposite of the truth. Opinion surveys don’t measure “respect” exactly, but the fact is, international support for America declined dramatically during Trump’s previous presidency.
And the two of us already see indications that the world’s opinion of Trump and the United States may be even lower during this second term of his presidency, especially in countries that are U.S. allies — countries that American tourists are most likely to visit.
When the two of us left the United States to become full-time nomads at the end of 2017, we fully expected to be on the receiving end of at least some anti-American prejudice. After all, there was the existing stereotype of the Ugly American tourist, and Trump was already very controversial.
As we traveled, plenty of people did ask us, “What the hell is going on over in America?” (We had no real answer, except to say, “Right-wing media.”)
And in many places, we’ve definitely seen a growing backlash against overtourism by Americans.
But almost everyone we met seemed to easily distinguish between American travelers and the actions of our government. The only place we experienced overt anti-America prejudice was in Serbia, which is still smarting over America’s intervention in the 90s in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars.
In many countries, we even felt a surprising affection for America — if not necessarily for Trump. Outside of Serbia, the people in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe expressed an open gratitude for the role the U.S. played in defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
That was then.
“It’s one hundred percent different now,” says Gavin Hansberry, 22, who’s been living in Europe since before the election. “People look at me more suspiciously, and some of the comments have been very harsh. They talk about stupid Americans and think of us as very small-minded. They want to know how we could let this happen again.”
Hansberry says he is always quick to declare his own anti-Trump beliefs, but that only helps a little.
“I was in a bar in Copenhagen,” he says. “I was talking to a former Danish military guy. He said, ‘We’ve always been an ally of yours. Now we don’t know if we can trust you anymore.’”
And one Danish woman was scared that the United States, which had been making threats about seizing Denmark-controlled Greenland, might attack her country. “There was actual fear in her eyes,” Hansberry says.
According to Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump has an extremely “transactional” view of the world. The president subscribes to the notion of “zero-sum”: for one side to win in a dispute, the other must lose. Genuine compromise is bad.
This is a radical break from how modern U.S. presidents — Democrat and Republican — have previously interacted with the world. They have typically employed “soft power,” using cooperation and respect for international law to build consensus and maintain order. By contrast, Trump favors coercion and force, seeing the rest of the world as something to be bullied and dominated.
“Trump clearly has not changed,” Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official in the Obama administration, told the New York Times. “What has changed is his administration — that is, the people around him. The guardrails are gone, and the adults have left the room.”
Upon being sworn in as president a second time, Trump immediately began issuing dramatic threats even to U.S. allies, almost as if trying to alienate them by design. He’s been obsessed with turning Canada into a U.S. state and has repeatedly suggested he wants to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland — and he’s refused to rule out using military force.
You could say that the idea of America invading some of its closest allies and seizing their territory is unconventional. But it’s probably more accurate to say it’s horrifying and batshit crazy.
Trump also came within hours of launching an economically devastating trade war against Canada and Mexico. He “paused” that proposed round of tariffs for thirty days, but then reimposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from his first term, except higher this time. These tariffs will hurt Canada and Mexico, but also the United Kingdom, arguably America’s single closest ally.
He’s also been threatening the EU with tariffs, suggested that Russia do “whatever the hell they want” in Ukraine, and repeatedly disparaged NATO — arguably the most successful and strongest alliance in world history, having kept the peace in formerly war-torn Europe for more than 75 years.
In the short run, Trump’s blustery threats and strong-arm tactics may pay dividends for America. After all, the United States is still the most powerful nation in the world, and no single country can hope to stand up to us directly.
But his chaotic, scorched-earth strategy could also upend the existing world order, uniting the world against us — allies and enemies alike.
Not surprisingly, Trump’s actions have already generated a massive backlash in the countries that he has directly targeted.
As a result, some Americans have suggested that they pretend to be Canadian while traveling outside the U.S. — something some Americans have done before.
“If you want to become Canadian, there are several pathways to do so, and you will be welcomed with open arms,” wrote one angry poster on Facebook. “Until then, please don’t hijack our global reputation because your country embarrasses you.”
When it comes to alienating the rest of the world, it also seems like Trump is just getting started.
Recently, the president all but shuttered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is responsible for most of America’s foreign aid, funding programs that provide disaster relief and promote health, environmental protection, democratic governance, and education.
A horrified outcry over HIV/AIDS prevention efforts restarted some of that funding, but people with tuberculosis in the Philippines and starving refugees in Somalia haven’t been so lucky. Even longtime conservative critics of foreign aid think Trump’s actions here have been disastrous. “Even if I like the idea of moving away from aid, I cannot condone this horrific way to go about it,” free-market economist William Easterly told The New Yorker.
Last week, Trump also floated the, er, unconventional idea of forcing all 1.8 million Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip so the U.S. could “own” the area and, well, build condos.
The technical word for this is “ethnic cleansing.” But the phrases “crime against humanity” and “massive violation of international law” also apply.
Needless to say, this didn’t go over well in the Muslim world. Jordan’s King Abdullah says the plan could destabilize the entire region. Last week, an American living in Jordan told us, “There are currently seventy protests across the country. People here are extremely pissed, to the point that I kind of fear for American personnel’s lives.”
In response, Trump has doubled down, threatening both Jordan and Egypt, trying to force them to take millions of Palestinian refugees.
Whatever happens now, it’s easy to see the rising fury transfer to American tourists visiting Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries.
Trump has only been president for three weeks, and only a fool would predict exactly how this will all unfold in the years to come.
Also, America is by far the wealthiest country in the world — and, contrary to Trump’s claims, Americans are anything but victims in the current world order. The intense desire for U.S. tourist dollars might blunt any response to individual American travelers, especially from governments.
But it’s also easy to see how things could go very badly for American tourists.
As recently as 2014, the U.S. tied with the UK as having the strongest passport in the world. However, the U.S. steadily slid downward over the past ten years, and it now ranks as only the eighth strongest in the world.
The slide is primarily due to America’s lack of reciprocity in visa-on-arrival status. Citizens of the U.S. can currently enter 186 countries without a visa but only extend that privilege to 45 countries.
But could this slide be accelerated because of a backlash against American foreign policy? If that happens, international travel would become considerably more difficult for American travelers.
And no matter how governments react, how will already-struggling locals respond to actions that are very directly and very negatively affecting their lives?
In our eight years of international travel, we’ve been struck by how often people in other countries are generous, welcoming, and even sophisticated when it comes to separating individual Americans from the actions of our government.
But Trump seems to be doing his best to change that.
In any event, we won’t be showing up at the Canadian border wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat any time soon.
Michael Jensen is a novelist and editor. For more about Michael, visit him at MichaelJensen.com.
My heart is broken over what has already happened in three weeks. I do not know how we will make it in the times to come. I am concerned that this will not end with the end of his presidency. The fact that he is already ignoring legitimate court orders and his department of justice is not going to do anything to enforce them actually scares me.
We have sold our home in Pennsylvania and are moving to Delaware next month because it seems a more reliable bastion of democracy.
Last week we canceled a European cruise because we are concerned about exactly what you have written in this column.
We talked about becoming nomads but are concerned that my husband‘s health issues would make it more complicated. Also he does not do particularly well with situational stress and having to move every few months would definitely exacerbate that.
I don’t know what’s going to happen but I do very much fear for the future.
(We’ve begun the retirement visa process for Spain and plan to move the 2nd half of 2025.) I visited Scotland in 2019 and was welcomed with open arms. But…I would say that while Trump is making things worse, resentment/suspicion of Americans has existed for decades. Reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” now, and it affirms how the U.S. has both covertly and overtly pushed its weight around internationally, and I don’t think the rest of the world is as clueless to this behavior as most Americans.