COVID-19 pushes US passport power ranking in a free dive
October 30, 2020 — As it stands, America’s economy isn’t the only thing experiencing a considerable hit in 2020. The US passport, once reigning at the top of the world’s most powerful passports, is now content in 19th place, sharing its rank with Moldova, Albania, and Singapore with a mobility score of 97.
As the Trump Administration seems to have neglected the importance of the US passport, today there are only 54 countries that allow American citizens to travel visa-free to their country. This excludes all of the European Union states, as well as major destination spots in the Caribbean and even neighbouring Canada.
Only recently, the administration found it useful to tool of leverage just before the elections. Not long after the US hosted the official signing ceremony for the historic peace agreements between Israel and the UAE, they also announced that American citizens born in Jerusalem will now be able to list Israel as their country of birth on their passports. Historically, American citizens born in Jerusalem have only been allowed to list the city as their country of birth with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, the White House does have someone who carries one of the most powerful passports in the world, and that someone is Melania Trump.
That’s right, the First Lady is at the seat of power and freedom of mobility with the help of her Slovenian passport, which ranks 4th in the world and holds an impressive 131 mobility score.
What makes passport power fascinating, is not really its ranking position, but rather how it withstands global crisis. The performance of some of the top-ranking passports before and during the pandemic displayed the true power of global governance.
Nations like Germany, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Japan, and New Zealand have all continued to maintain a consistent level of passport power, despite a looming pandemic still at large.
Under President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign — one major aspect was highly overlooked, and today, its citizens are paying the price. Whoever wins the 2020 elections, owes to the American people a more powerful, universally accepted document, so that once again, Americans can roam the world worry-free.
And in the case that Trump is reelected, knowing that the First Lady holds the only ticket to global freedom in the White House, will surely motivate him to “Make America’s Passport Great Again.”
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