Trump and his followers (yes, he still has them) think he’s the leader of the world. Respected by all and even feared by some. It’s a grand delusion and always has been. Still, during his first term leaders including our long-time allies realized early on that flattering Trump was the way to deal with him and the U.S. However they are fed up and not just with Trump, but for our entire country. Trump barely won his second term but the fact nearly half the country voted for him makes other countries think the United States itself is no longer credible.
Following WWII the U.S. emerged as the leader of the free world. For all my issues with Reagan he was right when he said we were the ‘Indispensable Nation.’ Not any more. Bush 43 was our ‘Mulligan’ with the world. Like so many Americans (the majority of who voted for Hillary Clinton) the free world couldn’t believe that Trump was even a major Party nominee, much less that he slimed his way into the Oval Office (no) thanks to the Electoral College. Like you and me it was assumed when he was nominated he’d lose in a landslide.
After his disastrous term and worse, Jan. 6 and other antics to try and hold on to power the world assumed Americans, even MAGAs would come to their senses. It didn’t happen and here we are. As I’ve said before it will take multiple generations to restore the respect we once had (both with friends and foes) around the world. If at all. Trump’s capitulation to Putin on Ukraine told NATO and Europe to kick planning for a greatly diminished U.S. into high gear.
Still, the old attempts to deal with Trump by flattering him seemed to be worth doing when he got back into the WH. Not anymore as this article from Salon tells us. Titled ‘The World Is Finally Calling Trump’s Bluff it offers a sobering read. It’s not a fun read and will take a few minutes but it should be required reading. For anyone college age or older Salon lays out a compelling case that the United States we grew up in is no more, at least as far as the rest of the world is concerned.
The article points out what I said earlier. World leaders (our allies) figured it was best to flatter and humor Trump. They depended on a long-established network of diplomacy (both hard and soft as in diplomatic efforts and military alliances) and a well-established structure in DC to rein in the worst of Trump’s excesses. They figured, it seemed correctly the best thing to to was wait him out. Biden never gets the credit due him for being able to repair a lot (but not all) the damage but when it became clear Trump would run again and worse be the GOP nominee the free world worried.
Would this country lose it’s freaking mind and let Trump back into the WH? So they quietly began some discussions of what to do, just in case the unthinkable happened. Not as much as they could and in retrospect should have but at least they had a head start. Europe (and NATO) got into serious discussions not long after Trump’s second term started. With his tariffs and other policies he was clearly intent on destroying the old world order. Flattery and butt kissing were still tools that were tried but it became that would work anywhere near as much as during Trump’s first term.
The world watched in dismay if not horror as Trump attempted to completely abandon Ukraine, enacted his disastrous sweeping tariffs, gutted the State Department and dismantled USAID and other programs. Worse, he for the most part seemed to go out of his way to appoint mostly completely unqualified people to top positions! It seemed to have sunk in on Trump that only in that way could he completely take over. It’s been a disaster both at home and abroad.
I can’t help at times wondering if the part of Trump that knows he’s so widely reviled has decided to be like the jilted spouse/lover that adopts the “If you don’t love me, if I can’t have you and all I want then no one can’ and commits murder. Trump of course is too vain to do what most such people do and afterwards commit suicide. Still, it sure seems that for all his vanity projects he knows deep down they will mostly never be completed or, if the country gets through this will be undone by his successor. So he’s simultaneously trying to burn it all down. Or, at the very least do so much damage it can’t be fixed. At least for a generation
I think my takeaway from the linked article is that the rest of the world, both leaders and regular folks see it the same way. America simply can’t be counted on. Treaties and long-standing agreements will be up for grabs every four years. Instead of providing ongoing stability like we did post WWII the United States will instead provide instability and even chaos. I spoke of how international relations went during the first term, but as Salon makes a point of saying this time around it’s different:
This time around is different. A recent report in the Washington Post by Steve Hendrix and Anthony Faiola revealed that the world is no longer taking the U.S. seriously, leaving the government with no credibility. As a result, international relations are unstable and dangerous.
That really jumped out at me. Our credibility is shot and the world is now unstable and more dangerous as a result. The article frequently mentions Tony Schwarts who spend eighteen months with Trump before writing The Art of the Deal. (Which it notes he profoundly regrets) Salon says that while the initial reaction to Trump’s tariffs and other crap was shock the worse realization that the vain, narcissistic and inadequate (in every way) man they privately believed Trump to be had been unleashed. It sure seems that way. Clearly he and his inner circle are hell bent on seeing how much he/they can get away with. In the meantime Trump is letting incompetent idiots run critical things while following his whims and impulses to engage in vanity projects. And of course raking in money and promoting himself!
Basically each day is ruled by Trump’s whims. Schwartz says “he flits from subject to subject, bellowing threats to all who oppose him and rewarding his cronies with ever more obvious modes of corruption.” That’s clear to any rational person, again both at home and abroad. And it comes with consequences younger people than me (I’m a senior citizen) and future generations will have to live with:
The world has decided to stop paying attention. “[M]ost consequently,” Hendrix and Faiola wrote, “Iran refuses to bend under American bombs and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and Russian President Vladimir Putin persists in his war in Ukraine. Europe met Trump’s recently renewed demands for Greenland with a collective sigh, and trading partners have shrugged off the latest tariffs.”
As the linked article states Trump’s threats are now seen as empty, and his so-called deals aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. It goes on to cite the ‘deal’ he announced with great fanfare to provide the Saudis nuclear capability and then blowing it up with a poison pill aimed at imposing his will in the middle east. Threats to ‘annihilate Iran’ now fall on deaf ears. Short of dropping nukes he CAN’T. As you know Trump blew up a week ago during a Camp David meeting when he finally learned (or accepted) we have run down our weapons stockpile to a point that’s dangerous. His bluster with the world falls on deaf ears because he’s all over the place, usually lying about the progress of diplomatic talks, showing that he’s full of bluster and bombast but lacks a strategy to win and ideas about how to get out.
The world mocks him behind his back. It always has. Remember in his first term when he tried a bit of campaign schtick about how awesome he was while addressing the U.N. annual assembly. The literally laughed in his face!
I wonder how he will be received next month for the 2026 general assembly. Or if he’ll even show up. He might decide to let SecState ‘Little Marco’ represent us. We’ll see. For now the last paragraph of the linked article is going to haunt me:
America’s political dynamics have us all just trying to hold on until he’s out of office so we can try to rebuild from the rubble. But the loss of credibility, the exposure of the nation’s weaknesses and the people’s willingness to put such a man in charge will not be easily repaired. The long-term damage to our international reputation, coupled with the weakness we are demonstrating in any number of areas, will leave us vulnerable for a long time to come.
Our choice is to give up and say America is finished as a credible player in the world or get out butts to work retaking control of Congress this fall. THAT is critical, because if we can do that, take both the House AND the Senate the free world might, just might at least decide to hold off on sending us to the proverbial Kiddie Table. We will no longer sit at the head of the main table but at least we can have a seat.
IF we prove our country is still worthy.
This time, if we get the majority, we need to hold people accountable. All of them. No more only looking forward. We need to do both at the same time.