When presidential statements become unreliable and the Pentagon stops explaining the war, allies start watching ships, deployments and markets instead.
“Trump has not simply weakened America, he has exposed weakness.” This statement made me sit up straight in my recliner! How far the US has fallen in 20 months! Even with all of its imperfections, the US has always been held in high regard by the rest of the world…a beacon of freedom, an architect of science and technology, a diversity of minds and entrepreneurship, generosity in times of disaster, and a military that was respected. All of that has eroded under his tenure. He gutted our internal systems and discarded the intelligence that made them function and replaced it with bumbling inexperience. And, now, it’s falling apart. And, so is he. Those who looked to us for guidance and strength in the past are forming their own coalitions and looking distrustfully at us. And, our enemies are seeing the cracks in our foundation and taking advantage of a narcissistic mad king whose only concern seems to be painting everything gold and robbing the treasury.
Thank you for seeing and speaking truth to power! It often seems exhausting by design. The circus barker barks outside the tent, while his handlers and operatives inside the tent plot the end of American constitutional government - and our nation’s recorded history - so their coup can succeed.
The vision of their new world order is suggested in the radical Project 2025 and has even darker variants for authoritarian rule such as tech giant Peter Thiel’s concept of billionaire enclaves that rule us, the peasants, with policies that facilitate early deaths of the poorest and most vulnerable.
Treason is an appropriate word for Thiel’s and his powerful allies’ ideological agenda, where Stalin-meets-tech-meets a new inquisition for women, minorities, and those they deem heretics.
Most Americans, legacy media and opposition politicians still seem to be checking out weather reports rather than seeing and speaking truth to power. I hold out hope their optimism has reasons I’m not seeing, so giving up is not an option.
Very clear analysis! From a European perspective it is almost like the United States is no more. There is a country called the United States of America but it is another country. That’s what it feels like and I miss the old country that was sane and reliable.
"Increasingly, serious observers are asking whether American policy is coherent, whether American commitments are durable, whether American power is sufficient to carry them out and, embarrassingly, whether the president actually understands the situation he is describing."
I would argue that serious observers are no longer asking this. They have answered all those questions in the negative. The more consequential questions are how did the voters make such a poor choice for president, how did they manage to stock congress with spineless sycophants who continue to enable his disastrous policies after a year and a half of destruction, what will prevent a repeat of this situation? Are the voters that disconnected from reality or are they force fed disinformation?
This administration has destroyed trust in the US in a remarkably short time. It will take much more than electing some Democrats, because part of the distrust is that the voters chose this. I know a lot of them did not, but Trump 1 was an aberration. Trump 2 was a choice. And how does the Republican Party get rebuilt — because there has to be a counter to the Democrats, or they will become just as corrupt — from a party in thrall to billionaires, completely uninterested in anything but raw power and profit.
You assume that voters chose Trump. I will never be convinced that it was not a scam. Conducted by Elon Musk and his finagling of the election returns. Trump did not win the 2024 election.
I understand the concern, but I'm thinking also of the 89 million who did not vote, and all the Genocide Joe nonsense leading into the election (as if Trump was ever going to do anything to help the Palestinians).
What is it going to take before the Republican party admits and confronts the irreparable damage the Trump regime is doing not only to our country's reputation in the world but also, and most importantly, to our national security?
The more I learn, the more I'm coming to believe that we've passed the point of no return. It seems increasingly likely that our country will decend into the darkness that marks the end of the great American experiment. The Trump regime wants to end our democracy and seems to have the full blessing of the Republican party.
Part of our potential demise is because Maga‘s only get their news source from Fox primarily. And Fox is not a news organization. It is an entertainment organization. Until we can get rid of Fox and those like it, there is no chance in hell that Maga‘s will finally hear the truth.
You don’t have to believe Donald Trump is literally a recruited foreign agent to ask a disturbing question: If a hostile power wanted an American president who would weaken the country from within, how different would its wish list look from Trump’s record?
He tried to overturn a legitimate election, attacked confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law, treated longstanding alliances as transactional, undermined environmental and climate safeguards, disrupted established trade relationships, and repeatedly placed personal and political interests above institutional norms. Russia, meanwhile, demonstrably interfered in the 2016 election to damage Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
But foreign control isn’t necessary for the larger concern. A leader can advance an adversary’s objectives through ideology, ego, corruption, self-interest, grievance, or simple recklessness.
The unsettling question is not merely “Is Trump a foreign asset?”
It is: How much would America’s adversaries want him to behave differently?
This is a great post Jay! And we can use this to learn …or not! I believe, as do many others, the American experiment CAN be revised and bettered, our standing can be restored by exacting equality and gain recognition again.
It will be interesting to see what happens at midnight when the 50 % tariffs begin. Canadians are psychologically prepared to accept pain and to support a Canadian response which although it is damaging economically will enable Canada to continue the process of trade agreements with Europe, Trans-Pacific and South American partners while anticipating political change across our border.
A typically brilliant analysis. Seems to me you'd be particularly qualified to be Secretary of State (no joke)...
It think it's always been a fundamental rule in living a life, let alone negotiating a complicated deal or moving pieces around an international chess board, to try and filter out the bragging, threats, lies, and other oratorical noise and pay attention to what somebody DOES, not what they SAY... As you point out, part of USA's (former) power in the world is (minus the imperialism) partially based on the old-time principle of walking softly and carrying a big stick; and another one I remember from neighborhood poker games when I was younger: "Put your money where your mouth is."
Trump and Hegseth (former and current TV "celebrities") can always be counted on to make the wrong decisions--some of which can result in tremendous loss of life and great misery... They are fatally focused on how things Look or Sound or Appear--rather than how things actually ARE; the drunken casino profligacy of wasting munitions being a perfect example... Big explosions, Big Bangs--sound and fury signifying nothing but the crashing and burning of our power and influence in the world...
These two fools are throwing away our real power to put on a "reality" show. The result of all this carnival barker bullshit is that the world might come to end much sooner than than we feared... Foreign policy under President Stan and War Secretary Ollie have become the punchline to a international joke--the trick will be to not die laughing. ...Midterm wins and impeachment are the ONLY solution to this catastrophe...
The Orange Idiot is altering the world order. Now, if this were done with purpose, clarity, intelligence and caution, with the input of subject matter experts and through cooperation with muliple countries, agencies and institutions, and by an intelligent man, then we might find good reasons to look cautiously and optimistically towards it. But it is not. It is being done by a madman with the help of imbeciles and a complicit, cowardly Republican congressional delegation.
"Eventually, those small adjustments become a different international system."
Thank you for setting the situation out so clearly.
Watching from the UK, is is heart-breaking to witness the erosion of trust in the US. Whether the regime's (Trump's) actions are idiocy or what it/he sees as strategy, the result is the same. Every post, speech, rant or whatever else comes out of the White House is largely ignored by the US' former allies, as it will have changed by the next day.
It seems unlikely that Trump is actually an 'asset' of the regimes that he chooses to favour, but they have known from the start how easy it is for them to manipulate him through flattery and gifts, and the rest of the world is left to face the consequences. North Korea, China, Russia and Iran must be very happy.
Trump is a con man. He is distracting everyone with his inexplicable behaviour. While we are watching his antics, his lawyers, friends, colleagues, handlers, are preparing something very dangerous in the background. His behaviour is not because he is demented (although he may be), it is quite coldly calculated. I may be wrong but and I hope I am.
The evolution of America in the past century has been like a jenga game. Trust me when I tell you that Americans are the only ones who say 'it's the greatest country in the world'. If you look at the data, there are numerous other countries that are much, much greater ... not in size but in cultural intelligence and personal responsibility and conduct. What's happening now is a reckoning of what's been building for 250 years. Americans are entitled ... they want and want. They waste excessively. They don't clean up behind themselves or look down the ladder to see who needs a hand climbing up. I've read that Democracy and Capitalism are unsustainable and that may be a truth. It wasn't 'them' (the trump administration) who brought us (the whole world) into this mess. It was the jenga structure experiencing more and more weak points until the inevitable 'bad guys' were elected a SECOND time and knew exactly what they wanted and how to exploit to get it. It wasn't all happy times before trump. The infrastructure is old and weak. The climate and environment are demaged beyond repair. There is no reliable working healthcare system. There are no laws propping up the Constitution. Congress has abdicated. Government is run by PACs. Corporations and money rule. Kids are ruled by phones. Everybody turns to debt to have all the STUFF they believe they need and deserve. Athletes and pop stars and tech geniuses make ridiculous money and influence young minds ... and mature minds too. Social media is used for so many negative purposes and yet it's an addiction. There is still illegal drug trade and use, alcoholism, smoking, obesity. We don't look after the mentally ill. The grocery stores are full of junk food. The soccer players in FIFA games were astonished by our grocery stores so now we'll be exporting that like we did fast food so other countries will get sick too. Schools are not properly funded. Guns, guns and more guns. I could go on and on. Someone please point me at what the USA has been excelling at that pertains to the everyday wellness of it's citizens and the world at large. This mess was created by everyone in the USA ... and then it was predictably exploited by 'the bad guys' because we no longer had any balance or strength. There was no solid foundation. IF the bad guys are evicted and the population and next government work VERY hard to put society on a better track with proper priorities for the future then perhaps America can be made great again (wink, wink). But, if America keeps doing what it's doing it will keep getting what it's getting. So when Mary wrote 'trump has not simply weakened America, he has exposed weakness' I completely agree. He exposed extreme weakness in Canada too and we're struggling to figure our country out now. Many countries (most?) are affected. I cannot even imagine what the future is going to be.
“Trump has not simply weakened America, he has exposed weakness.” This statement made me sit up straight in my recliner! How far the US has fallen in 20 months! Even with all of its imperfections, the US has always been held in high regard by the rest of the world…a beacon of freedom, an architect of science and technology, a diversity of minds and entrepreneurship, generosity in times of disaster, and a military that was respected. All of that has eroded under his tenure. He gutted our internal systems and discarded the intelligence that made them function and replaced it with bumbling inexperience. And, now, it’s falling apart. And, so is he. Those who looked to us for guidance and strength in the past are forming their own coalitions and looking distrustfully at us. And, our enemies are seeing the cracks in our foundation and taking advantage of a narcissistic mad king whose only concern seems to be painting everything gold and robbing the treasury.
I can only hope he croaks soon.
Thank you for seeing and speaking truth to power! It often seems exhausting by design. The circus barker barks outside the tent, while his handlers and operatives inside the tent plot the end of American constitutional government - and our nation’s recorded history - so their coup can succeed.
The vision of their new world order is suggested in the radical Project 2025 and has even darker variants for authoritarian rule such as tech giant Peter Thiel’s concept of billionaire enclaves that rule us, the peasants, with policies that facilitate early deaths of the poorest and most vulnerable.
Treason is an appropriate word for Thiel’s and his powerful allies’ ideological agenda, where Stalin-meets-tech-meets a new inquisition for women, minorities, and those they deem heretics.
Most Americans, legacy media and opposition politicians still seem to be checking out weather reports rather than seeing and speaking truth to power. I hold out hope their optimism has reasons I’m not seeing, so giving up is not an option.
Very clear analysis! From a European perspective it is almost like the United States is no more. There is a country called the United States of America but it is another country. That’s what it feels like and I miss the old country that was sane and reliable.
Yes, I know. It’s clear that Trump tried a coup on Jan 6 and then he was elected again. He is now working to complete the coup.
You say “old country, that’s what Trump and MAGA call the deep state “.
"Increasingly, serious observers are asking whether American policy is coherent, whether American commitments are durable, whether American power is sufficient to carry them out and, embarrassingly, whether the president actually understands the situation he is describing."
I would argue that serious observers are no longer asking this. They have answered all those questions in the negative. The more consequential questions are how did the voters make such a poor choice for president, how did they manage to stock congress with spineless sycophants who continue to enable his disastrous policies after a year and a half of destruction, what will prevent a repeat of this situation? Are the voters that disconnected from reality or are they force fed disinformation?
This administration has destroyed trust in the US in a remarkably short time. It will take much more than electing some Democrats, because part of the distrust is that the voters chose this. I know a lot of them did not, but Trump 1 was an aberration. Trump 2 was a choice. And how does the Republican Party get rebuilt — because there has to be a counter to the Democrats, or they will become just as corrupt — from a party in thrall to billionaires, completely uninterested in anything but raw power and profit.
You assume that voters chose Trump. I will never be convinced that it was not a scam. Conducted by Elon Musk and his finagling of the election returns. Trump did not win the 2024 election.
I understand the concern, but I'm thinking also of the 89 million who did not vote, and all the Genocide Joe nonsense leading into the election (as if Trump was ever going to do anything to help the Palestinians).
What is it going to take before the Republican party admits and confronts the irreparable damage the Trump regime is doing not only to our country's reputation in the world but also, and most importantly, to our national security?
The more I learn, the more I'm coming to believe that we've passed the point of no return. It seems increasingly likely that our country will decend into the darkness that marks the end of the great American experiment. The Trump regime wants to end our democracy and seems to have the full blessing of the Republican party.
Part of our potential demise is because Maga‘s only get their news source from Fox primarily. And Fox is not a news organization. It is an entertainment organization. Until we can get rid of Fox and those like it, there is no chance in hell that Maga‘s will finally hear the truth.
I wouldn't even call Fox entertainment. Its a propaganda machine that uses mindless entertainment to pacify the MAGAts.
IS TRUMP A FOREIGN ASSET?
You don’t have to believe Donald Trump is literally a recruited foreign agent to ask a disturbing question: If a hostile power wanted an American president who would weaken the country from within, how different would its wish list look from Trump’s record?
He tried to overturn a legitimate election, attacked confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law, treated longstanding alliances as transactional, undermined environmental and climate safeguards, disrupted established trade relationships, and repeatedly placed personal and political interests above institutional norms. Russia, meanwhile, demonstrably interfered in the 2016 election to damage Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
But foreign control isn’t necessary for the larger concern. A leader can advance an adversary’s objectives through ideology, ego, corruption, self-interest, grievance, or simple recklessness.
The unsettling question is not merely “Is Trump a foreign asset?”
It is: How much would America’s adversaries want him to behave differently?
This is a great post Jay! And we can use this to learn …or not! I believe, as do many others, the American experiment CAN be revised and bettered, our standing can be restored by exacting equality and gain recognition again.
It will be interesting to see what happens at midnight when the 50 % tariffs begin. Canadians are psychologically prepared to accept pain and to support a Canadian response which although it is damaging economically will enable Canada to continue the process of trade agreements with Europe, Trans-Pacific and South American partners while anticipating political change across our border.
So, so sad. But excellent piece Mary.
The answer seems obvious, the president is suffering from dementia. He needs to be removed from office immediately.
A typically brilliant analysis. Seems to me you'd be particularly qualified to be Secretary of State (no joke)...
It think it's always been a fundamental rule in living a life, let alone negotiating a complicated deal or moving pieces around an international chess board, to try and filter out the bragging, threats, lies, and other oratorical noise and pay attention to what somebody DOES, not what they SAY... As you point out, part of USA's (former) power in the world is (minus the imperialism) partially based on the old-time principle of walking softly and carrying a big stick; and another one I remember from neighborhood poker games when I was younger: "Put your money where your mouth is."
Trump and Hegseth (former and current TV "celebrities") can always be counted on to make the wrong decisions--some of which can result in tremendous loss of life and great misery... They are fatally focused on how things Look or Sound or Appear--rather than how things actually ARE; the drunken casino profligacy of wasting munitions being a perfect example... Big explosions, Big Bangs--sound and fury signifying nothing but the crashing and burning of our power and influence in the world...
These two fools are throwing away our real power to put on a "reality" show. The result of all this carnival barker bullshit is that the world might come to end much sooner than than we feared... Foreign policy under President Stan and War Secretary Ollie have become the punchline to a international joke--the trick will be to not die laughing. ...Midterm wins and impeachment are the ONLY solution to this catastrophe...
The Orange Idiot is altering the world order. Now, if this were done with purpose, clarity, intelligence and caution, with the input of subject matter experts and through cooperation with muliple countries, agencies and institutions, and by an intelligent man, then we might find good reasons to look cautiously and optimistically towards it. But it is not. It is being done by a madman with the help of imbeciles and a complicit, cowardly Republican congressional delegation.
"Eventually, those small adjustments become a different international system."
Is this - America now - what Russell Vought and the rest of Project 2025 / The Heritage Foundation had in mind?
Mary,
Thank you for setting the situation out so clearly.
Watching from the UK, is is heart-breaking to witness the erosion of trust in the US. Whether the regime's (Trump's) actions are idiocy or what it/he sees as strategy, the result is the same. Every post, speech, rant or whatever else comes out of the White House is largely ignored by the US' former allies, as it will have changed by the next day.
It seems unlikely that Trump is actually an 'asset' of the regimes that he chooses to favour, but they have known from the start how easy it is for them to manipulate him through flattery and gifts, and the rest of the world is left to face the consequences. North Korea, China, Russia and Iran must be very happy.
Trump is a con man. He is distracting everyone with his inexplicable behaviour. While we are watching his antics, his lawyers, friends, colleagues, handlers, are preparing something very dangerous in the background. His behaviour is not because he is demented (although he may be), it is quite coldly calculated. I may be wrong but and I hope I am.
The evolution of America in the past century has been like a jenga game. Trust me when I tell you that Americans are the only ones who say 'it's the greatest country in the world'. If you look at the data, there are numerous other countries that are much, much greater ... not in size but in cultural intelligence and personal responsibility and conduct. What's happening now is a reckoning of what's been building for 250 years. Americans are entitled ... they want and want. They waste excessively. They don't clean up behind themselves or look down the ladder to see who needs a hand climbing up. I've read that Democracy and Capitalism are unsustainable and that may be a truth. It wasn't 'them' (the trump administration) who brought us (the whole world) into this mess. It was the jenga structure experiencing more and more weak points until the inevitable 'bad guys' were elected a SECOND time and knew exactly what they wanted and how to exploit to get it. It wasn't all happy times before trump. The infrastructure is old and weak. The climate and environment are demaged beyond repair. There is no reliable working healthcare system. There are no laws propping up the Constitution. Congress has abdicated. Government is run by PACs. Corporations and money rule. Kids are ruled by phones. Everybody turns to debt to have all the STUFF they believe they need and deserve. Athletes and pop stars and tech geniuses make ridiculous money and influence young minds ... and mature minds too. Social media is used for so many negative purposes and yet it's an addiction. There is still illegal drug trade and use, alcoholism, smoking, obesity. We don't look after the mentally ill. The grocery stores are full of junk food. The soccer players in FIFA games were astonished by our grocery stores so now we'll be exporting that like we did fast food so other countries will get sick too. Schools are not properly funded. Guns, guns and more guns. I could go on and on. Someone please point me at what the USA has been excelling at that pertains to the everyday wellness of it's citizens and the world at large. This mess was created by everyone in the USA ... and then it was predictably exploited by 'the bad guys' because we no longer had any balance or strength. There was no solid foundation. IF the bad guys are evicted and the population and next government work VERY hard to put society on a better track with proper priorities for the future then perhaps America can be made great again (wink, wink). But, if America keeps doing what it's doing it will keep getting what it's getting. So when Mary wrote 'trump has not simply weakened America, he has exposed weakness' I completely agree. He exposed extreme weakness in Canada too and we're struggling to figure our country out now. Many countries (most?) are affected. I cannot even imagine what the future is going to be.