Obviously some Americans liked him since he was elected twice, but nobody outside USA liked Bush.
And when I write nobody, obviously I don't mean that literally, but Bush was a very disliked president outside USA.
Vanishingly few economies compete with China in any material way
That's a very weird claim, especially since you mention cars. Europe and China are in very steep competition also on cars. Countries highly affected by this area alone are: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Czechia, Sweden, Netherlands, and UK. That means ALL the major economies of Europe are competing with China.
IDK if you are American, things may look different over there, you seem pretty ignorant of what happens in the rest of the world.