The world responds with protests and dismay

LONDON — If the credo of the new U.S. president is “America First,” as Donald Trump emphatically declared Friday in his strikingly nationalistic inaugural address, then where does that leave the rest of the world?

That’s what people around the globe — from Asia to the Middle East to Latin America — were left to wonder after watching Trump use the opening minutes of his presidency to double down on campaign pledges to end what he sees as misguided efforts to help other countries at the expense of U.S. interests.

After more than 70 years of vigorous political, diplomatic, economic and military engagement to promote paxAmericana, Trump’s words suggested to international observers a far more isolationist and protectionist path ahead.

“If he follows through — and people have to come to terms with the fact he may well do what he says he’s going to do — then it’s the end of the post-World War II, post-Cold War order, and the beginning of a new phase,” said Ian Kearns, co-founder of the London-based European Leadership Network.

But that phase, Kearns said, may be far rockier for the United States than Trump suggests.

“If you’re just out to defend your interests,” he said, “then others will do the same.”

Within minutes of Trump’s speech Friday, others were already having their say.

Although world leaders showered Trump with a cascade of politely worded tweets and congratulatory messages, the mood on the streets in many world cities was far more unsettled on the day that Trump became U.S. commander in chief.

In London, hundreds of people gathered in the evening chill to chant “Dump Trump!” outside the American embassy. In Mexico City, residents took to social networks to debate not whether Trump was good or bad, but how grave the new era might be. And in Beirut, observers compared Trump’s speech to those by their own region’s past and present despots.

There was also praise. Many Russians rejoiced, as did anti-European Union populists and Israeli officials.

The world’s divided response mirrored the one in the United States: defiance and despair in some quarters, enthusiasm and optimism in others and profound polarization as far as the eye can see.

But perhaps not surprisingly for a president who came to office on a wave of insults hurled across national borders, the world’s protests were more pronounced than its victory parties.