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In one of the most famous, and funniest, lines of English poetry, Robert Burns draws a powerful lesson about a woman sporting a fancy hat in church one morning, ignoring the laughter prompted among those behind her by the sight of a louse crawling around among its flowers.

“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us,” Burns wrote, “To see oursels as others see us.” Ah, yes. If only we could “see ourselves as others see us.”

I was given that gift last month: one week in France and three weeks in Italy. Not a long time, but long enough to get a good glimpse of how Europeans view the United States these days under Donald Trump. Believe me, it ain’t pretty.

Before I left for Europe, several friends warned me: Be prepared to take a lot of personal abuse. Because, after Trump destroyed the mutually beneficial relationships built up over the last 70 years, people hate Americans now.

That was not my experience at all. What I discovered was even worse. On one hand, they’re confused. They don’t understand how we could let this happen. On the other hand, they’re sad. They realize how hard it is for most Americans under Trump. So, they don’t hate us. They feel sorry for us.

And they know what’s going on. Trump’s latest outrages get front-page coverage in most newspapers and cable TV: from the war on Iran, to building a new ballroom, to comparing himself to Jesus, to plastering his face on new passports. I never heard one commentator defend Trump. Most just make fun of him. One day, after Trump had again flip-flopped on the Strait of Hormuz, il Domani featured a front-page political cartoon showing an embarrassed Trump, pants around his ankles, with the caption: “Caught with his pants down.”

Of course, nothing stirred up the Italian press and politicians more than Trump’s gratuitous attacks on Pope Leo. Conservative and liberals agreed that Leo was not elected, as Trump claims, only because he was an American and therefore close to Trump. He was elected because he’d spent more time in Peru than in the United States, and therefore had no ties to Trump. Elly Schlein, the new leader of Italy’s Democratic Party, often called “Italy’s AOC,” got a standing ovation in Parliament after a fiery speech condemning Trump for his attacks on the pope. It was the only issue, she said, on which she and Prime Minister Georgia Meloni had ever agreed.

In a poll released by Italy’s Channel 7, only 11 percent of Italians said they trusted Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin did better, at 16 percent. Meloni, who’d been suffering in the polls since her initial support of Trump, bounced up to 43 percent approval after joining other European leaders in opposition.

Not even tragic events at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner brought Trump any sympathy. When I expressed dismay at yet another attempted assassination, Italians I talked to dismissed it as “fake” – just another effort, like the Iran War, to take attention off the Epstein files. Which is a disturbing but not surprising reaction, I guess. After Trump has spread so many lies and conspiracy theories for years, what is the truth? Nobody believes anything anymore.

Of many conversations about Trump, two really struck home. The first, with a university professor who very sincerely wanted to know: We understand how you might have elected this guy the first time, but how could you make the mistake of electing him again? The second, with an education expert who documented schools shut down for millions of impoverished children, especially in Africa, due to Trump’s killing of USAID. Why would we destroy the one government program that generated the most goodwill for America around the world? I wish I had a ready answer for both.

The sad fact is that, for good reason, our once longtime friends and allies don’t trust the United States anymore and may never trust us again unless we act soon to prove them wrong. Which brings us back to the lady in the hat. In his seldom quoted next line, Robert Burns wisely added that if we did see ourselves as others see us, “It wad frae monie a blunder free us.”

“It would from many a blunder free us.” How true. We have an opportunity to correct our big blunder and clip Donald Trump’s wings in the November midterms. This time, we’d better get it right.

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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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