I have some questions. Maybe you have some answers.
First, let’s acknowledge that in most of the world outside the United States, “America” is no longer a positive term. Especially under Trump II, when the foreign policy of the United States seems to be “insult everyone, turn allies into enemies,” people and governments around the world have lost confidence and respect for America. Even Canadians hate us now.
Second, the consequences for American brands like McDonalds and Coca-Cola cannot be good. Whether by actual consumer boycotts (see: Canada) or by a sudden dislike for any product associated with America, brands associated too closely with America are bound to suffer.
Third, the LDS Church is an American brand. Not many would dispute that, although you can disagree, I suppose. The image that springs to mind, of course, is two young American missionaries with white shirts and black name tags walking the streets of just about any foreign country. There is local leadership of non-US Church units, but always supervised by (at some level) American leaders higher up the chain. My sense is that most non-US people see the LDS Church as an American church.
Fourth, what is the impact of all this on LDS missionary work and LDS retention outside CONUS? My suspicion is: not good, not good at all. But I don’t know of any published data to support this expected effect. I’m sure the LDS Church has some data, but does not release it. They only release positive data. LDS reports of LDS success or failure and related statistics have very little credibility because … they just don’t report failures. So I’m wondering what readers have encountered, either by way of reports from credible sources or by way of personal experience or direct reports of friends or family who live or serve overseas.
- Have LDS missionary convert baptisms outside the US declined?
- Has “the LDS missionary experience” changed, that is, has anti-American sentiment translated into anti-LDS sentiment overseas? Are LDS missionaries getting anti-US blowback?
- Has a general unhappiness with America led to actual exits from LDS activity or even formal disaffiliation by LDS members overseas?
- In particular, readers who live outside the US are invited to comment on all this. It must be getting harder to be an active LDS Church member outside the US. I admire your fortitude if you stay, but I understand if you don’t.
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Wheat & Tares 
With your obvious distaste for the USA (if not outright contempt), combined with your serious case of TDS, perhaps you should expatriate to one of these overseas countries for whom you have such concern; and while there – get some World Class mental health care. You’re obviously not happy – nor doing well – here “in country”.
I am so proud at the self-control exhibited by W&T readers in not feeding the troll.
I can’t comment on the overseas impact of Trump on the LDS community, but there is plenty to digest for how he has called into question the MAGA movement for many LDS along the Wastach Front.
Anyone who still shouts “TDS” at even the slightest criticism of the president at this point is so deeply in the cult of Trump that there is literally nothing he could do (e.g., sexual abuse, pedophilia, first-strike offensive war killing thousands, destroying peace and world stability, insulting and making enemies of our allies, bringing back inflation, raising the deficit to record levels, portraying himself as Jesus, etc.) that will cause such a person to see how misplaced their allegiance is. They are incapable of rational thought and are essentially mentally ill.
I don’t have any data to support this but my experience in South America as a missionary (80s) vs my experience there later in life as a tourist and business person (2000’s) is notable. It was once cool and enviable to be an American there. Not sure that is still the case. And Trump of course has made it worse.
Sometimes I look at the missionaries on bikes or the sisters dressed as pioneers and I wonder how we ever got away with it. Somehow we did back then and it was fine but it’s downright cringy from my current point of view. My hat is off to you folks who are sending your kids out of the US to preach and convert.
(my opinion is probably tainted given my changing perception of the Church’s truth claims)
I have a Aussie friend. Reports from there at least, they still like Americans as individuals, but recognize something is seriously wrong in the culture and political system. They cannot comprehend why all we do is protest. But their government has better controls with an ability for the voters to say they want a new government. So, with their ability to overthrow an unpopular leader, they can’t imagine why we . . . um . . Don’t demand an election be held? But anyway
As to the perception of the church as American, not so much or no problem there. They are so used to watching American movies and American TV and everything American that the Mormon church being American is not a problem, even as much as they hate tRump. However, they do see Mormons as a weird American CULT. That is the bigger problem. My friend’s first comment to me being Mormon was, “aren’t they kinda like the Amish, with strange 19th century clothing?” So, no, seeing the church as American isn’t the problem, but seeing it as a weird controlling, backwards thinking, polygamist cult, that is the problem.
America and the governments of Western Europe are in conflict. That said, the governments of Western Europe are in conflict with their citizens. England and Germany specifically seem to be unsettled with the prevailing governments at odds with populist sentiment. I am curious how the LDS church will navigate the divide between establishment government and the populist fervor that seems to be gaining political influence. It is not easy being neutral when the political argument is so polarized. Neutrality has the consequence of making one unimportant and insignificant. Perhaps that is the best place for the church to be.
FWIW, when in western Europe on my mission during the George W years and after Iraq was invaded, they really didn’t like Americans then. I would try to joke when they would tell me to preach to George W instead of them (I wish I could! kind of thing). These sentiments come and go with time … though, of course, every successive Republican president in the past 40+ years sure seems to be hellbent on doing things that rational people could understandably call stupid – Trump just seems to be a (hopefully) logical conclusion of where that path of hubris ends.
Otherwise, however, I just don’t recall local membership seeing themselves as appendages to an American organization, but rather a wholly local affair with local concerns, local interests, and local habits. Are there people that may have joined as a hope that it would affiliate them with America in a way that would promote their own self interests? Probably; but for those that actually show up after baptism, in my experience they were doing so because of religion, not because of America. And I have to acknowledge that my experience is with western Europe, which got sick of America a much longer time ago than even Trump I.
Honestly, the last question in this post to non-US members has a LOT of assumptions baked into it to begin with …
The blog “ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com” covers the the question of church growth, where it is happening and where it is not. The numbers are drawn from the LDS newsrooms where an annual report of church membership by nation is posted. Since the church does not maintain a history of these numbers on the website, one has to have captured them, which I believe this blog has done.
Dave asks about LDS membership data at the national level. This data is published yearly by the church and other websites track this data year by year. But apparently, one is not allowed to share links in comments. Just know that the data is out there and you can search and find it.
I am an American living in Belgium and I attend a Dutch speaking branch. From where I sit it doesn’t seem to have affected the missionary work. Our sister missionaries find most of their contacts through social media and they found a surprising level of interest and some success with young college age people.
The established members of course have had a lot of contact with Americans over the years and they say that they know us better than we know ourselves (which is probably true). They don’t hold myself or the (mostly) American missionaries responsible for the current political climate. There was excitement with the call of Elder Causse, but disappointment with the call of Elder Gilbert.
Belgium has been treated shabbily by the current administration and I am frequently asked by both members and nonmembers that I am acquainted with, why I think a loyal ally who shares our values would be treated this way, and what we hope to gain. All I can say is that I am baffled too, and that I hope this passes.
It calls to mind Spencer Kimball’s talk in ’74, “When the World Will be Converted,” and his hope of a church that would in the future not be limited to its American portion in carrying out the Great Commission.
“There is local leadership of non-US Church units, but always supervised by (at some level) American leaders higher up the chain.”
This is true in the sense that Pres. Oaks and his counselors in the First Presidency are all Americans. Outside of that it is a less sure description of church leadership today than it was twenty years ago. The Quorum of the Twelve and the Seventies now have a large fraction born in other countries. Most of the Area Presidents (18 out of 24) were born in countries other than the United States. That includes one born in Portugal and another born in Japan who preside parts of the United States. A case of this kind of thing that caught my attention a dozen years ago was in Panaca, Nevada 170 miles north of Las Vegas and 80 miles west of Cedar City. Panaca has 900 residents and two LDS wards. Elder Joseph Sitati, born in Kenya, had never been to Panaca before and went there to pick a new stake president for that old Mormon town, a complement to the Utahns who had long been sent to other countries to do similar things.
Not knowing what is reported in America.
To perhaps give some indication of the turn around in sentiment towards America.
Last weekend there was an election in Hungary.
In 2018 Victor Orbans party won 133 of the 199 seats in their parliament.
In 2022 he won 135 seats
In last week’s election he won 55 seats and lost his position as leader.
Orban was pro Trump (Vance campaigned for him in Hungary)
He was pro Putin
He was obstructing European Union money going to Ukraine
He was also anti gay
He had also gerrymander the election so there was concern about whether he could be removed after 16 years.
He still got 27% of the seats, down from 67%
America is now in with Russia, and Israel. Not the free world any more.
Trump has attacked his allies throughout the free world, while supporting tyrants and war mongers. The rest of the free world are arranging themselves and signing free trade agreements so they can operate without America.
If it became public knowledge that 2/3 of Mormons voted for him?
The church could remain in the extreme right political group. Not my people though.
In Australia that group is around 25%
It will be interesting to see in the mid term elections how large the extreme right is in America. America has always been furthur to right than the rest of the free world, so concerned. Hopefully small enough to get him removed.
Are the extreme right not offended by trump presenting himself as Christ? Or do they agree?
Sorry meant to include this article
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-14/hungary-election-referendum-donald-trump-of-europe-orban/106560708
Speaking from the UK, and my own ward specifically, we had 5 baptisms on Sunday, and have had convert baptisms regularly for some months now. Predominantly immigrants (including families) and single men. I don’t think the immigrants are especially aware of the particular American vibe, at least to begin with. We have missionaries from all over the world. Might the single men might be drawn by Christian nationalism aspects? I don’t know.
A Disciple, the most recent parliamentary by-election in the UK was won by the Green Party, not the populist Reform party, much to the chagrin of Farage. The current behaviour of the US leader is so unhinged as to be causing Farage to find himself wrong-footed, and losing support. I’ll take what silver linings I can get…
I’ve been traveling a lot over the last year and a half, mostly Asia. I’ve also hosted multiple friend groups from Europe. And I don’t see anything at all like what the OP’s describing. I hear frustration with US-related events such as being stuck in Dubai during the surprise start of the Iran war. But intelligent people recognize there are political cycles. They separate their feelings for US political leaders from their feelings for unrelated US institutions. For instance, they didn’t suddenly increase their love for McDonald’s, Tokyo Disneyland, Taylor Swift’s music, or LDS missionaries when Obama was president. And they now don’t lower their feelings for these same institutions under Trump. I won’t call it TDS. But I think the OP is projecting or imagining wider international negativity than truly exists. I also enjoy posts from Wheat and Tares a lot more when the posts address the “philosophies of men mingled with the philosophies of women” than when they mingle the philosophies of American politicians. I can get much more complete versions of the later elsewhere.
As with any marketing question, I want to ask who is the target audience?
To my left of center progressive cousins in Scandinavia, the Mormon brand is in decline. But they were only paying attention as a social phenomenon closely associated with the U.S. They have never been interested in Mormonism as a religion or church someone might join.
To my imagined pool of prospective and new converts (based on real but second- and third-hand stories) they are generally conservative to very Right wing, the Mormon brand and the U.S. brand are associated, and that’s either neutral or positive.
In the past 12 months I’ve spent time in Europe and Japan. The locals seemed to understand that America is a large country, Trump did NOT win by a landslide despite him repeating this several times a day, and that generally speaking the people travelling are intellectually curious to learn and appreciate other cultures, especially in this moment of being quite embarrassed at our home country. And I agree with Pagan they understand it may just be a cycle blip that gets studied at length in my grandkid’s AP History classes 25 years from now. In spending time with other tourists, we’ve pretty much been on the same page that we cannot wait to vote this shit show out.
As for missionaries, I’m not sure how locals view them. I would imagine it’s a mix. Most locals probably know where all the local churches are and have no interest in talking to a missionary. The JW are ALWAYS posted on the skybridge outside the Seattle airport and I always make sure my airpods are in and I avoid eye contact. This is probably true regardless of what country the missionary is from. Then in our current online world, lonely people may actually be drawn to a friendly missionary, hence the increase in baptisms recently. Will the church’s retention improve? Hard to say.
A Canadian here. The respect – and admiration – that most Canadians he.ad for the USA is gone. You have a president who usues the f*** bomb. A president who refers to our Prime Minister as “Governor.” A president who wants to annex Canada and turn it into the 51st state. America first is American alone.
I think those who only see Trump as cycling with other presidents are deluding themselves. Trump has attacked verbally and with tarrifs and now his blocking oil out of the gulf, what were loyal allies. No previous president has. These are not the behaviour of a friend.
In Australia, petrol is now $8.80 a us gallon, and diesel is $12.8 a gallon, and will be in short supply if Trump keeps oil locked up. interest rates which were falling, are now predicted to rise.
There has not been a president who actively attacked the allies in the free world. Trump is not just another president, he is a danger.
Iran has said those who have not bombed it can have their oil. Trump is now stoping that. The world can not return to normal, which could lead to a world recession, because of Trump bullying.
We are all hoping that enough American voters turn out in the mid terms and vote democrat so he can be removed. If this does not happen it will not just be Trump that is despised but Americans in general.
America has various facilities here. Questions are being asked about whether these should be closed. We have a contract with America to supply us with nuclear submarines. That could also be cancelled. Part of the logic is that we would have the same equipment as an ally to fight China together. Japan, UK, France all make nuclear submarines.
We are told we have an extreme El nino weather event coming. Droughts and bush fires. We need everyone to fight climate change. Trump
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-16/strait-of-hormuz-albanese-government-fuel-prices-inflation/106485664