The World Reacts As Joe Biden Becomes U.S. President-Elect

TRACY WILKINSON

MUCH of the world welcomed election results Saturday showing Joe Biden as the next president of the United States after several days of vote counting, but rebuilding respect for the U.S. on the global stage remained a work in progress.

Since election day on Tuesday, the spectacle of a careful tallying of ballots nationwide — as the sitting, and losing, president hurled lies and invective about the election supposedly being stolen from him — has drawn a measure of pity from world leaders and communities.

The Trump presidency squandered America’s reputation as the world’s leader, said Virak Ou, founder and president of Future Forum, a think tank in Cambodia, adding that he was skeptical that a Biden administration could reverse a growing belief abroad that the U.S. was in decline.

“More people are realizing that there’s too much fluctuation in American foreign policy, that the U.S. can’t be