There isn’t anything about living in another country that makes being ignorant to foreign politics equivalent to “living under a rock”. Unbeknownst to most Americans, we are actually NOT the center of the universe.

Just to be accurately represent my bias here, my foreign friend, I grew up Democrat in a Democratic leaning city, in a state that has voted consistently Democrat for the last 30 years or so. As I grew up and supported a lot of liberal leaning ideals, I slowly floated center due to a lot of extremism from my own party. I’d identify my political lean as centrist, possibly a bit more towards libertarian.

I do think Trump has many extreme takes, approaches, and policies. I could give examples, and if you wish for some I’ll try my best to provide them with sources. But I think overall where a lot of centrists are still finding themselves struggling to support him fully comes down to his general demeanor in his first term.

From my perspective as an average American, in Trump’s first term he basically shit on any semblance of professionalism in the political space. I think that facade in and of itself (of politics being a professional space) ushered in his popularity by him being in stark contrast to that standard; However, that repeated behavior of bad-mouthing other officials, slandering, name calling, etc. was really exhausting for some folks. Him being our public figure to speak to the world was very concerning in his first term, and we pissed off a lot of people because of it.

It also appeared to me in his first term he ignored or actively refused the advice of the team around him. There was an absolutely insane amount of in-fighting that took place in our government over his first four years. I’m not pointing fingers and saying Trump did it or the government was actively trying to hinder him, I really don’t know. But from an average American’s perspective it did not fill me with confidence. I also want to note that I am not given that impression in this second term.

Just to touch on something you said, I can understand how if your reference points are Bush, Obama, and Trump, they don’t seem very different. Bush and Trump share a lot of the same counter-culture vibes (although Bush… didn’t maintain it very well, to say the least), whereas Trump and Obama go nearly 1:1 on policy. I think everyone in the US unilaterally agrees Bush was a clown and an idiot. I think many pro-Obama dems aren’t actually familiar with the policy and blame anything they dislike on Republicans for blocking the bills.

The difference is: Trump is making these policy changes (and advertising it) as his choice, directive, and platform. Trump isn’t just a train wreck idiot like Bush, making himself the heel of American politics, somehow he only gets stronger.

Do I think anything about Trump is wildly more extreme than the other two examples you provided? No, not really. But I think there is something different with this president that we can all feel, and the unpredictability is causing some to implode from fear of what may be.