Britons often express admiration for the United States, but in interviews conducted by The Associated Press as America marks 250 years of independence, many people quickly turn to one figure when asked what they think of the country now: President Donald Trump. The AP described the response as loud, broken and baffling—an impression that emerges across a range of locations and political views.
The AP asked a neutral question—“What do you think of America now?”—and the story said that nearly every answer began with a pause and then a euphemism or substitute phrase for Trump and the Trump era. Even those who support some Trump policies, the reporting said, still framed the current state of America through him.
Mark Keightley, a printer technician in the Cambridge area about an hour north of London, captured the issue in a line aimed at who now sets the tone. “It’s Trump’s world now, isn’t it?” Keightley said, according to the AP report. The article said the wording avoided direct reference at first, but still carried a clear message that Trump dominated the way Americans were being assessed.
Other Britons tied their dissatisfaction with America’s present to Trump personally. Eddie Boyle, a Falkirk resident, told the AP that his view of America is “now dictated by the president” and that Trump was “not covering himself in glory,” adding that the U.S.-U.K. relationship had been “tarnished,” the report said.
The AP also placed today’s reactions in a longer historical pattern, citing Charles Dickens’s 1842 visit. Dickens wrote that he felt disappointed by the new country and, in the AP account, contrasted what he had expected with practices he described as falling short—especially slavery, which Britain had abolished in 1833, and what Dickens viewed as deteriorating American standards of press freedom. In a letter cited in the AP report, Dickens said, “In every respect but that of National Education, the Country disappoints me,” and also wrote of the country’s “press more mean, and paltry, and silly, and disgraceful than any country I ever knew,” according to the story.
As the article recounted major U.S.-U.K. milestones—such as the War of 1812, the U.S. role in World War II against Nazi occupation, and U.S.-U.K. coordination associated with the Cold War—it argued that no single president or moment has fully defined the relationship. Maria Miston, from Suffolk, said in an AP interview that Thatcher and Reagan helped bring the Cold War to an end, but she pointed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a point where the superpower’s image was damaged and “We’ve just gone backwards since then,” the AP report said.
The AP then tied the Trump-era image problem to diplomacy and symbolism, describing how Trump’s second term affected interactions with Britain’s leadership. The report said Trump first tolerated British Prime Minister Keir Starmer but then dismissed him, and that Trump has suggested the king, not the prime minister, is his peer. It also described Trump’s flattery surrounding the king’s invitation to an unprecedented second state visit and a royal dinner at Windsor Castle, along with public messaging in the White House, including a post that the pair are “TWO KINGS.”
The AP report said that the same state-visit coverage played out against a backdrop of domestic British politics. It described polls showing significant opposition to the king’s visit beforehand, and it said the king’s performance was widely praised as soft power. The story also quoted Rod Stewart, telling the AP that Stewart said to Charles at a May 11 gala, “May I say, well done in the Americas,” and “You were superb, absolutely superb, put that little rat bag in his place,” as the comments were made within earshot of reporters, according to the AP.
Beyond interviews, the AP report pointed to polls about how Britons view U.S. leadership. It said a Gallup poll in late summer and early fall of 2025 found 28% of British adults approved of U.S. leadership and 68% disapproved. The story also cited the Pew Research Center’s 2025 Global Attitudes Survey, reporting that roughly half of U.K. adults had a favorable view of the U.S., with the article noting that favorability had been higher during the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Overall, the AP presented modern Britain’s relationship with the United States as something watched closely—sometimes with irritation or confusion—while still retaining admiration for elements like American wealth, military might, and entertainment. The report said Britons also reflected on American gun violence, on the history of immigration as a context for U.S. crackdowns, and on the central puzzle for many: how Trump rose to the presidency as the country celebrates 250 years of independence.
In Washington, down the hill from George Washington’s ancestral home, Mark Gibson told the AP that he could understand why Americans elected different men, even if he did not agree with them, but that he did not understand Trump, pointing to what Gibson said were bankruptcies and legal troubles. “But,” Gibson added, “I guess that’s what people wanted. They elected him twice,” according to the AP report.