President Donald Trump is damaging the United States in the eyes of the international community, but it goes so much deeper than that ... so says actor Boris Kodjoe.

We caught up with the star at LAX Wednesday ... and we asked him what he thinks of the current state of American politics. Kodjoe's originally from Germany but came to the United States in the '90s -- so, he's got a unique perspective on the political system.

You can listen to all of the specifics for yourself ... but, basically, Kodjoe's concerned. He calls recent decisions by the Trump administration "sad" and "disturbing" -- and advocates for a return to compassion.

As a German citizen, Boris says he definitely sees parallels between the United States' direction and Germany's prior to World War II.

We mention to Kodjoe that some online are calling Trump embarrassing to the country ... but, Kodjoe fires back by saying that doesn't do far enough -- he's "embarrassing for humanity."

This all comes on the heels of the prez bizarrely saying sometimes countries need dictators during a speech in Switzerland.

Kodjoe says it's a distressing situation ... but, he's also encouraging people not to fall into hopelessness or assume there's nothing they can do to defend their country.