In Sydney, Australia, Lucy Sunman crawled out of bed at 3am so she could watch President Biden’s inauguration live.
“The cold effect of the Trump presidency has affected us around the world,” said Sunman, a 36-year-old lawyer. “I can not wait for stability to be restored.”
In Seoul, 70-year-old Park Sang-ki sat in his cramped printing press across the street from the US embassy and read online news reports about Donald Trump’s departure from the White House.
“America was supposed to be an advanced nation, gentlemanly,” Park said. “Trump, he was like a gang boss.”
In Berlin, Yvonne Wagner broke open champagne to celebrate ‘the moment we have all been waiting for so long’.
“The clown is finally gone,” said Wagner, a 52-year-old secretary.
When Biden took office on Wednesday, promising to unite a nation torn apart by fierce political divisions and a deadly pandemic, the rest of the world watched closely. Many people were less focused on Biden’s ascension than on the departure of Trump, a larger-than-life character who wanted to disrupt the status quo at home and abroad, and who will be remembered as one of the most controversial presidents. , not only in American history but also worldwide.
“All right,” said Nydia Ngiow, the former Singapore government negotiator who worked in her government’s embassy in Washington for several years.
Images of Trump supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol this month explained how damaging his presidency was, she said.
“It is almost as if we have seen the downfall of America, a country that has been so frequently regarded as the leader of the free world since World War II,” she said. “There is no more credibility to it, no more accountability, and it will certainly be an uphill battle for Biden to repair the damage that Trump has done.”
A survey by the Pew Research Center among people in 32 countries conducted before last year’s presidential election found that 64% of respondents did not trust Trump to do the right thing in world affairs.
A proud nationalist who regularly spoke of ‘America’s first place’, he withdrew global agreements, curbed legal immigration and sparked a trade war with China.
Biden, a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Vice President under President Obama, is widely regarded as a well-known figure who will be more predictable than his predecessor in many matters, including foreign policy.
He promised to be an active world leader. Of his first appearances on Wednesday, he was re-joining the climate agreement in Paris, and he promised to stop Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Biden said he would convene a world summit of democracies to counter an increase in authoritarian leaders worldwide.
“There is a need for a re-occupied United States,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week, adding that a government in Biden is a major change from the “slightly more unpredictable and sometimes challenging” one. who did it.
Others cheered the entrance to the White House of Vice President Kamala Harris. No woman has risen higher in American politics.
Harris, who is black and Indian-American, has become a symbol of hope in India, where some of her family members live.
“I can not help feeling proud,” said Watsal Yadav, a 23-year-old man who sells tomatoes, eggplant and fragrant cilantro in a busy street in Mumbai.
“America is a powerful country in the world and now one of us is its leader.”
Ireland also expressed their joy when Biden, a proud Irish American, was seen in office. “Ireland is very proud of the inauguration of Joe Biden,” tweeted Foreign Secretary Simon Coveney. “We hope to welcome him to his ancestral home early in his presidency.”
Trump’s political enemies celebrated his departure. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani angered Trump at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, saying his term as US president was “full of cruelty and lawlessness.” [is] now over. ”
His friends, meanwhile, mourned over it.
“We had a good relationship,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters on Wednesday morning. He thanked Trump for respecting Mexico’s sovereignty.
It was an unlikely face for López Obrador, a nationalist who criticized President Trump for his ridiculous comments about Mexican immigrants in the US and who wrote a book claiming respect for Mexico called “Listen, Trump . “
But world leaders are unlikely to become close allies. López Obrador waited six weeks to congratulate Biden on his victory and defended Trump when he was pushed from Twitter after the attack on the American Capitol.
Many analysts anticipate conflict ahead of the US and Mexico, in part because López Obrador and Biden have very different views on climate change, renewable energy and security cooperation.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist who has carefully modeled himself on Trump, also regrets his departure. But analysts say the rise of leaders like Bolsonaro means Trump’s legacy is going nowhere.
“Trump is gone, but the [populist wave] is not, ”tweeted Brian Winter, vice president of policy at the think tank Council of the Americas.
Some people watched Biden’s inauguration with skepticism because they were not sure if the change in the White House would mean a change in policy.
In China, Talia Yan, a 21-year-old college student, said professors explained that it did not matter whether Biden or Trump was president.
“Honestly, none of them will particularly support China,” one professor said.
“No matter what, they’re going to try to push China down,” Yan said as he snacked on steamed sandwiches at Yaoji Fried Liver, an old breakfast shop in Beijing that Biden visited in 2011 as vice president. “We have to keep our defense and not give it up just because Biden is here.”
Others said the end of the Trump presidency was a time for reflection.
Nicolas Richter, editor of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Munich, wrote in an editorial that Trump’s retirement was ‘the best news of the year’.
But he said it also revealed important truths.
“Western democracies have long seen existential threats posed primarily from abroad,” he wrote. “Trump has shown that these threats are now mainly hidden at home. His rise and chaotic presidency is a modern warning against autocracy. ”
Times writers Linthicum and Kim reported from Mexico City and Seoul, respectively. Special correspondent Kirschbaum reported from Berlin. Staff Writers David Pierson and Shashank Bengali in Singapore, Alice Su in Beijing and Nabih Bulos in Beirut and Special Correspondent Tish Sanghera in Mumbai contributed to this report.