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The latest Henley Passport Index shows the American passport clawing back into the top 10 of the world’s most powerful travel documents, a technical win that masks a worrying trend for our standing abroad. The United States now ranks tenth, with Americans enjoying visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to roughly 179 destinations — but that number does not tell the whole story.
Behind the headline improvement is the painful reality that Americans lost visa-free access to seven countries over the past year, a drop that should set off alarm bells in Washington. This is not mere travel trivia; it is a tangible indicator of weakening reciprocity and diplomatic leverage that conservative voters care deeply about.
This reversal has been building for years: the U.S. once proudly shared the No. 1 spot in 2014 but slid to 12th place by October 2025 before inching back to tenth this month. That long, steady decline is a national embarrassment born of complacent foreign policy and a failure to negotiate from a position of strength.
Part of the problem is blunt: the United States allows visa-free entry for only about 46 nationalities, a striking contrast to countries that have broadened their access aggressively. When our openness to inbound travelers is this limited, it undercuts any moral argument about global leadership and hands advantage to rivals who play the long game on mobility and influence.
Conservative common sense says we should respond like a country that values its citizens’ freedom and its national interest. That means leveraging visa policy to demand reciprocity, pressuring nations that cut Americans off, and using trade and security cooperation as bargaining chips — not rolling out the welcome mat unconditionally for regimes that won’t treat our citizens fairly.
Patriots know that soft power begins with hard bargaining. Republicans in Congress and the next administration should make clear that travel access is a privilege tied to respect, security, and mutual benefit — and until that respect is restored, America must stop accepting second-class treatment on the world stage.
