‘Trump is a global laughing stock’: Americans are humiliated by former president prior to 2024 election

During Kamala Harris’ recent rally with Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts joined in on a video call. She lamented what it was like to travel as an American since Trump took office.

During the call, Roberts talked about meeting people oversees. “I want people to say ‘Oh, you’re American!’ not ‘Oh. How’s it going over there?’” Having done a little international travel myself, I can absolutely confirm this.

Didn’t realize our vacation was an apology tour

When my husband and I went on our honeymoon in 2017, we had to sit down and talk about something I never thought we would need to discuss. What were we going to tell people when they asked where we were from?

With the shadow of Trump looming over the country, we had to have a strategy for how to let people know that we were American, but not those Americans. We settled on saying, “We’re from Los Angeles.” Thanks to the film industry and the celebrity culture, people know where Los Angeles is and that we skew liberal over here.

As soon as we were settled in the Amazon rainforest and started talking with our international group of fellow adventurers, the very next question from everyone was, “So what do you think of Trump?” We could tell it was a litmus test we were being given. They wanted to know how bad it really was. Was it true how he was treating immigrants? Did he really say the terrible things he reportedly said? And most often, how did this happen? How did America allow this man to become the president? Luckily, we had all the time in the world to explain the electoral college across language barriers.

Even post-presidency, Trump was hard to shake

The second time we had to do this was when we went to England in 2023. A man on the train we were on clocked our accents and realized we were Americans. He started watching footage of Trump going to court on his computer so we could all see it together. “Look at him. What an idiot!” he laughed. Again, he just wanted to know where we stood on the political spectrum and how America got to where it was.

To travel as an American is to constantly apologize for inflicting Trump on the rest of the world. We’re not the only ones who have to deal with his foolishness when it involves the highest office in the land. To be honest, we’d rather make friends by talking about something more pleasant, but hating on Trump seems to be an international pastime.

So when #TrumpIsAGlobalLaughingStock is trending, it honestly doesn’t surprise me. I know it’s true because I have traveled outside of the U.S. bubble and have heard what people really think of him. And it genuinely doesn’t matter what that hashtag is in reference to because the man does something embarrassing every day. He makes his own bed to lie in.

I’ll be in Japan next year and I’m hoping that I won’t need to do so much explaining. If you don’t mind, could you check your voter registration status and start making your voting plan? The world would be quite grateful.