Donald Trump's America has slipped four points lower on a global corruption index in 2018, dropping out of the top 20 countries for the first time since 2011. The watchdog Transparency International reports on corruption and its threat to democracy every year. In its latest report, released Tuesday, it said business leaders’ perceptions of corruption put the the U.S. at 71, down from 75, on a scale of 0-100. Zoe Reiter, the watchdog’s acting representative to the U.S., told Reuters: “This is a red flag because it’s really part of a pattern that we’ve seen since the 2008 global financial crisis of a loss of trust... in our public institutions.” She added: “Concerns around the Trump administration are quite serious, but this has been stewing for several years.” Denmark and New Zealand topped the index while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan remained at the bottom.
