Brand America may be in for trashing under Trump

AS DONALD Trump begins to pick his top administration officials, including controversial conservative firebrand Stephen Bannon, his election continues to send shockwaves around the world. This partially reflects the fact that so many polls predicted Hillary Clinton would win, and also that many global publics favoured her entering the Oval Office over Mr Trump.

In turn, this threatens to potentially damage the reputation of the United States (the so-called "Brand America") internationally. Indeed, Shashi Tharoor, former UN under-secretary general and a current Indian MP, has already asserted that the billionaire businessman's election could mean "the end of US soft power" by exposing "tendencies the world never used to associate with the US: xenophobia, misogyny, pessimism and selfishness".

Brand America is especially likely to take a battering if Mr Trump continues with the undiplomatic pronouncements he regularly espoused during the campaign. Examples here include his assertions in April that Washington should withdraw US troops from South Korea and Japan and allow those countries, and potentially others, including Saudi Arabia, to develop nuclear arsenals.