The demonstrations across the country last Saturday did nothing to stay President Donald Trump’s hand. He was golfing at the time and ignored it altogether.

But I hope Canadians were watching. And Greenlanders. And Mexicans. And all our old friends across the globe, who must be wondering just what the hell has happened to us.

The demonstrations showed that many Americans are asking the same question. We don’t see them as parasites. We don’t want to hurt them. And we don’t want to break up.

In this new trade war, I find myself rooting for the other team. Why are we imposing tariffs on Australia, when we have a trade surplus with them? Why are we hitting Japan and Switzerland when they have lower tariffs than we do? Why are we breaking the trade deal with Canada and Mexico that Trump himself called a “massive win” for America when he signed it five years ago?

And why, for God’s sake, are we driving away our natural allies in the more important trade disputes with China — by far the biggest cheat in the global trading game?

In less than three months, Trump has squandered the good will that has taken decades to build. In Denmark, only 20 percent of voters have a favorable view of America today, a new low. Germany is at 32 percent, France at 34 and even the United Kingdom is at just 37 percent, also a new low. And all that is from a YouGov poll in March, before Trump launched this trade war.

Standing up to the United States is now political gold across much of the democratic world. In Canada, the Liberal Party was in a death spiral until Trump began his insane rantings about an invasion, but it has fully recovered now after telling him to shove it.

“We will never in any way, shape or form be a part of the U.S.,” said the new Liberal prime minister, Mark Carney. “America is not Canada. . . His point is crazy, that’s it.”

All this makes it tricky to be patriotic these days. It’s not like watching the Olympics and rooting for the American gymnast. And it’s not like the feeling of pride when we do great things on the world stage, like rescuing Ukraine, or building a health network in Africa to save millions of people from the AIDS epidemic.

It was horrifying to watch Chinese crews rush in and help dig out the victims of Myanmar’s big earthquake on March 28, and to learn that the United States was not helping. It turns out that among the many casualties of Elon Musk’s chainsaw was a unit of 200 rescue workers and sniffer dogs, along with special equipment, that normally would respond. Trump’s team sent three people a few days later to assess — and then fired them while they were on the ground in the earthquake zone.

“We are not the government of the world,” said Marco Rubio, our squeaky little Secretary of State.

And who could feel proud of that shameful moment when Trump used the Oval Office to broadcast his made-for-TV spanking of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky? It was hard not to notice the bust of Winston Churchill watching the spectacle. Try to imagine Franklin Roosevelt telling Churchill he had “no cards” in his fight against Hitler, that he was a “dictator” because England suspended elections during the war, and that if he wanted our help he’d have to pay us back by signing away rights to all British coal mines. It’s inconceivable.

So, no, the patriotism we need now is not of the cheerleading variety. It’s something deeper.

If we love America, we’ve got to stop this maniac from wrecking the country. He seems to have no idea what is special about us. To him, immigrants are criminals, free speech is a threat, democracy is a hindrance, and global affairs is something like a real estate deal — a game to win, nothing more.

We are in a tough spot, and it helps to remember that America has slipped up many times before. We were born in genocide and slavery. We stole more than half of Mexico in a war that a young Abe Lincoln considered a crime. A century ago, we put hundreds of people in prison for speaking against our involvement in World War I. Hundreds more were killed for forming a union or going on strike.

Patriots didn’t walk away from any of that. They pushed back. They built a better country.

It’s our turn now. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) put it well this week during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” after his marathon 25-hour Senate speech last week. “If America hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough,” he said.

During the demonstrations at the Washington Monument on Saturday, I saw a few protestors in the crowd with signs that read, “What Cory Said.” Amen to that.

Moran is a national political columnist for Advance Local and the former editorial page editor/columnist for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be emailed at [email protected].