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With new administration in place, some say US needs to improve standing on world stage

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Posted at 10:49 AM, Jan 26, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-26 11:49:11-05

With a new administration now in place, some experts say the United States needs to improve its standing on the world stage.

The most recent study by the Pew Research Center shows a number of countries have an unfavorable view of the U.S. South Korea gives the most favorable view at 59%. In the United Kingdom, that number is 41%. Canada is at 35%. In the Netherlands, it's 30%. And in Germany, it hit 26%.

An international athlete who lives in the U.S. says people ask him every day what is happening in America.

The U.S. is known as the country, 'hey if things happen, we go call the U.S. to solve things.’ The U.S. is kind of the country that helps navigate things in the right direction. People in Europe and Africa and other places are like, 'if they can't take care of their own business, how are they going to take care of other people's business,’” said Akwasi Frimpong.

Frimpong lives in Utah, but he’s from Ghana and grew up in the Netherlands. He represented Ghana in the 2018 winter Olympics in skeleton.

While competing in Germany last week, he says people from other countries asked if we're witnessing the downfall of the U.S. as a powerful country. He says his family shares their own concerns.

“There's so many people that are calling me up and say, ‘Akwasi, hey what's going on? We need you to move back to Ghana or the Netherlands, we don't think you're safe in the U.S.’ That's kind of a little scary and crazy to hear that from them,” he said.

Frimpong says people from other countries that he has met looked at the U.S. as a place to go to succeed, but now they're questioning that.