[chatmasta]

> In the era of Trump, the attribute of being American has turned negative, in many places.

This is a wild generalization that in the past nine months of traveling, I have not experienced once. In fact you may be surprised to hear I found more Trump supporters in Morocco, of all places, than I did detractors.

Regardless, even if someone hates trump, for most people it does not also follow that they hate all Americans.

I would lose immediate respect for someone sewing the flag of another country on their backpack; it's so presumptuous, arrogant, and self absorbed.

[Frondo]

Your post also seems like a wild generalization, to be honest.

I spent some time living abroad in the Bush years, in a variety of places where Westerners almost never go. (I hate the beaten path...if I can see photos of it on Flickr, I don't need to go there myself. That should help you figure out where all I've been ;) )

Based on the anti-American sentiment I saw there, then, anti-American sentiment in many parts of the world would not at all surprise me now.

And I didn't sew any flag on my backpack, but I sure didn't tell people I was an American; I speak another language well enough (and with an indistinct accent) that I usually told people I was from a non-Western country entirely.

If for nothing else, the haggling. Just passing as a non-Westerner got my prices in North Africa cut by 90% every. single. time.

Hah, maybe they just liked your money!

[jsjohnst]

Don't mistake personal anecdata for fact. I've personally seen it happen recently to friends (and experienced it in the past the last time we had a president many outside the US hated). Not saying it's universally a constant (otherwise I'd fall in the same trap you did), but it definitely happens.