{"id":81965,"date":"2026-03-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=81965"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T01:25:37","slug":"europeans-are-angry-at-trump-but-often-forgiving-of-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/europeans-are-angry-at-trump-but-often-forgiving-of-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Europeans are angry at Trump, but often forgiving of Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Europeans<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A retired psychiatrist sipped his morning caf\u00e9 con leche in a corner bar in Granada, Spain, a city teeming with American tourists and students, as he followed a debate this week in the Spanish Parliament over the economic consequences of President Trump\u2019s war in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shook his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump is beyond the pale,\u201d said Jes\u00fas Tello, 75, a conservative voter who diagnosed the U.S. president as a \u201cpathological narcissist\u201d who did not care about the consequences of his actions and only saw enemies. But his dim view of the American president did not, Mr. Tello said, extend to all the Americans who had the \u201cbad luck\u201d of living with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans are always welcome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, the buildup to the United States-led invasion of Iraq prompted a groundswell of anti-American sentiment among Europeans who resented President George W. Bush for trying to drag their nations into a quagmire. Across Europe, mass antiwar demonstrations directed anger at Mr. Bush that at times seeped into a broader rage at America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, there is a different, less hostile, mood, on the Continent\u2019s streets \u2014 even if some Americans have expressed fears of a backlash. Demonstrations have been few and small. While polls across Europe show deep disapproval for Mr. Trump and for a war that risks destabilizing Europe\u2019s economy and security, Europeans, at least for now, are often distinguishing between the American leader and the American people in their bistros, shops, cathedrals and tourist attractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to separate the two,\u201d said Alessandro Zanuso, 29, a graphic designer in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Mr. Trump, the Bush administration spent months making a case, misleading though it was, to bring Congress, the American people and world leaders aboard before going to war. Mr. Trump did not seek approval from Congress or the United Nations, or even consult in advance with U.S. lawmakers or European allies. He brazenly broke his \u201cno new wars\u201d promises, and upset much of his own base by joining Israel\u2019s attack on Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, people across the Continent said this week, Europeans don\u2019t have the feeling that Mr. Trump has his country behind him. That distance, they said, removed some of the stain of war from the visitors on their shores. Instead of the jingoism of the Iraq War era and talk of American exceptionalism, they saw chastened American visitors keeping their politics, and in some cases nationalities, on the down low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI met a lot of Americans who said they were from Canada,\u201d said Robert Lewis, 65, from Cardiff, Wales, as he stood beside Granada\u2019s cathedral. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to own up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyril Pasteyer, 24, headwaiter at a Paris restaurant, said he had noticed that Americans were reticent to talk about the situation back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Brussels, David Sastre, 45, who drives tourists around in a carriage, said that sometimes Americans apologized to him for being American. He assured them, he said, that Europeans like \u201c99.999 percent of Americans.\u201d For him, Mr. Trump seemed to fall in the 0.001 percent. \u201cIt\u2019s the head of state that is the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That feeling may even be spreading to Mr. Trump\u2019s nominal allies in Europe, like Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy. This week, Ms. Meloni lost a referendum on her plan to overhaul Italy\u2019s judiciary. As the race tightened in the days before the vote, she was hardly helped, some experts said, by her closeness to Mr. Trump, who is increasingly unpopular for his tariffs, his anti-European bombast and the rising energy prices brought on by the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some supporters of Mr. Trump in Europe are standing by him. Yves Souvenir, 57, a member of the American Club of Brussels, proposed that the club organize a social event called \u201cEpic Fury,\u201d named for the military mission in Iran, \u201cto celebrate the administration.\u201d Mr. Souvenir has not yet received a response from the club leadership, he said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But other Trump fans in Europe feel disoriented by his administration\u2019s unexpected adventurism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrazy people,\u201d said Sergio Urquiza, 19, a supporter of Spain\u2019s far-right party Vox and, until the war in Iran, of Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Urquiza wore a NASA backpack decorated with an American flag as he walked in Granada to a children\u2019s religious procession in advance of Holy Week. Mr. Urquiza worried about the war raising gas prices, and causing needless suffering in Iran and the world. Still, he said he didn\u2019t hold that against the American students who came to his town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe distinguish,\u201d Mr. Urquiza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some American tourists who had girded for a chilly welcome instead appreciated Europe\u2019s warm embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Martin, 46, said that if he could have predicted the war in Iran, which he didn\u2019t think was a good idea, he probably wouldn\u2019t have brought his family from Arkansas to Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as Mr. Martin and his family descended Granada\u2019s Alhambra, the walled fortress housing magnificent late medieval Moorish palaces and gardens, he joked that everyone seemed \u201chappy to accept our money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife, Allison, said the couple and their two children had not felt \u201cany animosity at all,\u201d as they toured the country. Spaniards seemed to understand, they said, that many Americans were as vexed by Mr. Trump as they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a temporary moment in time,\u201d said Mr. Martin, traditionally a Republican voter, but with strong doubts about Mr. Trump. \u201cHopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American expats said they had received empathy more than condemnation. Katherine Wilson, a writer and actress living in Rome, said she was experiencing less anti-American sentiment than during the Iraq war. Italy has a long history of questionable leadership, going back to at least the Roman Empire, and Italians \u201cwould be really in bad shape\u201d if judged by their leaders, she said. Italians now have a message, she said, of \u201coh man, we know what it\u2019s like to have a leader who does things we don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone was so understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am upset with both Trump and the American people,\u201d said Selvi Kilicarslan, 55, who lives in southern Turkey, which has come under sporadic missile fire from Iran. The nearby Incirlik air base hosts American forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ute Gervink, 55, a goldsmith in Berlin, feared the consequences of Mr. Trump\u2019s war and felt Americans should \u201cshare the blame because, of course, they elected a man who is completely unpredictable. And they knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up on the Alhambra, Ana Maria Valdivieso, 33, struck a similar note about American voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid they really think Trump was not going to start a war?\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t understand why they believed him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n