Is Trump making it harder for the US to spread democracy?

The US government has long been promoting democracy around the globe.

Woodrow Wilson believed stable democracies were the key to world peace. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US helped push Eastern Europe toward "Western-style" democracy. The State Department has been helping fledgling democracies in Africa find their footing for decades. And George W. Bush infamously led US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq under what he called "The Freedom Agenda."

As the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq make all too clear, spreading "freedom" often gets tied up in US military intervention.

Promoting democracy "has always been embedded in our foreign policy," says Susan Glasser, editor of Politico. Sometimes that means leading by example, she says, and sometimes it means an active role.

But some believe the presidential campaign of Donald Trump will make US efforts to spread democracy harder.

"Anybody who travels outside of the US this year is likely to hear an earful about our presidential campaign," Glasser says.

Glasser says that Trump has shown he is unfamiliar with the basic tenets of US foreign policy. He has questioned longstanding US alliances, complimented Russia's authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin, and challenged values that have been the bedrock of US foreign policy for decades. All of these actions have worried foreign observers.

"There's a deep sense of concern," Glasser says.

This concern ranges from fears of worldwide political instability to the state of the global economy. When the FBI announced that it was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, Trump's campaign got a boost and global markets tumbled.

Glasser says Trump's political rise suggests the existence of a strand of American society that people abroad had no idea existed. Their support for a candidate like Trump has made the US appear somewhat hypocritical when it comes to democratic values.

And that could have long-term diplomatic consequences.

"It's really been a very harmful episode already, regardless of the outcome next week," she says.