Aljazeera
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – Dao Le Quynh Nhi still vividly recalls the festive mood she and her friends were able to soak up when they interacted with Barack Obama at a town hall meeting here as part of his Vietnam trip last year.
“I had high hopes that his visit, among other things, would result in a positive outcome for the TPP,” she said, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a mammoth US-led 12-nation trade deal that Donald Trump nixed right after taking office.
According to a Pew survey in 2015, 89 percent of Vietnamese believe the otherwise controversial trade deal would be good for their country.
As Trump touched down in Vietnam on Friday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and a state visit, Nhi said, however, she could not care less about his trip. A native of the central Vietnamese resort city of Da Nang, the host city of the APEC gathering, she was asked by many of her friends whether she would come back home for the chance of seeing the new US president in real life.
“My answer is a resounding ‘no’,” said Nhi, a 25-year-old office worker. “I have no interest in Trump. He is not as inspirational and charismatic as Obama. Above all else, he killed the TPP.”
But despite Trump, Nhi said the influence of American culture and values on Vietnamese millennials such as herself has remained as strong as ever. “They have set an idealistic bar for a democracy and a civilised society that Vietnamese youth are yearning for.”