For four years, the world watched in amazement, horror, and in some places as President Trump pushed one democratic norm after another, exposing the so-called leader of the free world as just another troubled and deeply divided nation.
The planet was nonetheless unprepared for the dazzling scenes Wednesday, when a tampered Trump troupe, some flags of the Confederate countries, stormed the U.S. Capitol to interrupt a congressional vote confirming President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“The rhetoric of American exceptionalism has lost a lot of luster over the past few years, but no one expected it to happen,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst and professor at CIDE, a public research center in Mexico City.
“It is a reckoning or a reconciliation with the fact that the USA can no longer be seen as a beacon of hope and democracy.”
Around the world, the uprising in Washington – fueled by Trump and loyalist Republican lawmakers who refused to accept his defeat in the November election – is an ugly code for a presidency that leaves democratic allies, embraces autocrats and not on serious threats does not respond. to domestic institutions, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian burglary.
Even when Congress reconvened on Wednesday night to confirm Biden’s victory, the unrest caused despair among the world’s democratic leaders and calls for a peaceful transfer of power, highlighting the enormous challenges facing the President-elect in facing as he seeks to restore America’s international position.
“It was an act of violence against the heart of democracy,” Julian Reichelt, editor – in – chief of the Bild newspaper, Germany’s best-selling pony newspaper, said in a television interview. “It hurts everyone who has America in their hearts.”
Supporters of President Trump climbed the western wall of the American Capitol on Wednesday.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
In a televised speech, Biden quoted the message that the violent scenes about the health of the American system conveyed.
“The world is watching,” Biden said. “Think about what the rest of the world is looking at.”
The view from afar was disturbing and sad. Social media feeds read like a eulogy for the American ideal.
“Our thoughts are with the American people,” wrote Nanaia Mahuta, New Zealand’s Secretary of State.
“Scandalous scenes,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“In the eyes of the world, American democracy appears under siege tonight,” wrote Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs. “This is an unseen assault on American democracy, its institutions and the rule of law. This is not America. ”
“Enemies of democracy are celebrating these incredible images,” tweeted German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who called on Trump and his supporters to “finally accept the decision of American voters and stop to trample on democracy. “
Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute think tank in Australia, said leaders of America’s opponents, including Russia and China, would celebrate the chaos.
“The champagne is flowing in the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai today,” he tweeted.
Beijing’s Global Times propaganda outlet could hardly contain its joy, with terms such as ‘karma’ and ‘retaliation’ in a summary of Chinese social media reports on the events.
The Chinese embassy in Washington issued a security reminder to Chinese citizens in the US, describing the situation as “serious” and reminding them to “pay attention to security measures and carefully [re]consider going to public places. ”
Supporters of President Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol police officers outside the Senate chamber inside the Capitol.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
For authoritarian governments that have absorbed repeated readings on democracy and human rights by U.S. governments, the images of police and national guard units deployed in Washington’s streets and crowds in camouflage uniforms wandering the halls of the Capitol are no small feat. amount of damage joy offered. Some could not resist enchanting their American critics.
Venezuela’s socialist government – which has survived US sanctions, challenges by Washington – backed opposition groups and a massive humanitarian crisis – said in a statement that it condemned “the political polarization” in the US and hoped that the country “could find a new path to stability and social justice.”
In Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has purged political opponents and sniffed out disagreement, a leading member of his ruling party, Mustafa Sentop, has expressed his concern and called for calm.
“As Turkey, we have always been a supporter of the law and democracy, and we recommend it to everyone,” he wrote.
Even in South Korea, a strong US ally, there have been signs that the Trump administration has been influencing US influence in recent months.
In a radio interview, South Korean lawmaker Song Young-gil apparently referred to his government’s recent ban on sending propaganda leaflets across the border to North Korea, which has been criticized by some lawmakers as a violation of freedom of speech.
“It makes me question whether the US is capable of teaching us about democracy,” Song, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Korea, told YTN Radio.
He added that developments in the US should be a warning of political polarization in his own country.
“To see the situation in the USA, we learn that whether you are right or left, disregard the constitution and insist that you are right, destroy democracy,” he said.
For human rights activists from Hong Kong to Thailand and beyond, sometimes inspired by the American model of representative government, the unrest has highlighted the difficulty of maintaining democratic rule in the face of leaders trying to undermine it.
Earlier Wednesday in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters sometimes waved U.S. flags while protesting a crackdown by Beijing, more than 50 people were arrested for alleged violations of Beijing’s draconian national security legislation.
Peter Lewis, a host of radio talks in Hong Kong, tweeted that the scenes in Washington “were also a tragedy for #HongKong who strives to preserve its own democracy. How can the #USA be a model for democracy and tell other countries how to conduct their election if that happens? ‘
Longtime Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi said: “While people in Palestine and many other parts of the world are struggling to achieve democracy, there are those in the United States who are actively sabotaging them.”
Others were less surprised to see the Trump presidency end in violence. Yes Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, calls it the ‘logical conclusion’ of Trump’s months of unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, and says it contributes to growing doubts about the United States’ ability and willingness to as a global leader.
“Many will rest on the Biden government and the Democratic leadership of Congress to restore confidence,” Chong said.
Meanwhile, the last days of the most chaotic American government in memory of the world offer another dramatic spectacle.
In a restaurant with chicken wings in Mexico City, a television usually showed reggaetón music videos or football games live from Washington. On German ZDF TV, correspondent Elmar Thevessen in Washington told his viewers how a pro-Trump mob surrounded him and his camera crew along with several other media teams and seized and destroyed much of their equipment and forced them out of the area to flee.
“The president has awakened the ghosts we see here today,” Thevessen said in the broadcast. “What happened is a four-year symbol of Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Bengali reports from Singapore, Linthicum from Mexico City and special correspondent Kirschbaum from Berlin. Times writers David Pierson in Singapore, Victoria Kim in Seoul and Alice Su in Beijing also contributed.