America alone
The stunning collapse of U.S. prestige under Trump
There’s a sound that every serious student of American history should hear in the latest Pew Research Center survey.
It’s the sound of something precious breaking. Not loudly. Not all at once, but unmistakably.
The survey by the Pew Research Center found a staggering collapse in confidence in the United States and its leadership across the world. In country after country, people who once looked to America with admiration, trust and hope now see a nation that is unreliable, self-absorbed and diminished. Confidence in American leadership has cratered. Trust in the United States as a reliable partner has fallen dramatically, including among some of America’s oldest and most faithful allies.
This didn’t happen because America was defeated in a world war.
It didn’t happen because America suffered an economic collapse.
It didn’t happen because a rival power surpassed the United States.
It happened because Donald Trump became president.
That’s the story.
That’s the tragedy.
It’s one of the greatest acts of self-inflicted strategic vandalism in the history of the American republic.
The men and women who led America through World War II understood something elemental. They understood that America alone was vulnerable. America isolated was endangered. America friendless was weaker.
The generation that stormed the beaches of Normandy, liberated Europe, defeated Imperial Japan, and then built the post-war order didn’t seek alliances because they were sentimental internationalists. They sought alliances because they were hard-headed realists.
They understood power.
They understood history.
They understood geography.
They understood that the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean were no longer moats protecting a continent.
They understood that security depended on relationships, partnerships and trust.
After the war came the long twilight struggle of the Cold War. From Harry Truman to Dwight Eisenhower. From John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan. From George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama.
The details, parties and ideologies differed, but the strategic consensus endured.
America needed friends, allies, legitimacy, and to be respected. The most powerful nation in the world couldn’t afford to become the most distrusted nation in the world.
Donald Trump never understood any of this.
He looked at alliances and saw protection rackets. He looked at allies and saw freeloaders. He looked at diplomacy and saw weakness. He looked at America’s reputation, and concluded it had no value.
The result is visible in black and white.
Less than 25 percent of adults around the world have confidence in Trump’s leadership regarding global affairs.
Only 37 percent of respondents view the US favorably. Trust in America has collapsed in Canada, Germany and Britain. Across Europe, Asia and the democratic world, confidence in American leadership has fallen to levels that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
The damage isn’t abstract, nor theoretical.
It’s strategic.
Every nation that begins questioning whether America will keep its word must begin planning for a future where America may not.
Every ally that doubts American reliability must hedge.
Every friend that loses confidence must look elsewhere.
The result is a world that becomes more dangerous for Americans.
This is the paradox Trump never understood. The slogan was “America First.” The result is America alone.
And there has never been a moment in modern history when America needed friends more. The challenges confronting the United States are immense.
China is rising.
Artificial intelligence is transforming civilization.
Global supply chains are vulnerable.
Authoritarian powers are coordinating their efforts.
Nuclear proliferation remains a threat.
The climate is changing.
The oceans are contested.
The Middle East remains unstable.
No nation can successfully navigate this century alone — not even the United States. In fact, especially not the United States.
There’s another lie that has accompanied this era of decline.
It’s the poisonous lie that America’s diversity is a weakness. It’s the opposite.
America is the only country on Earth made from all of the world’s people. Every language is spoken here. Every culture is represented here. Every continent is present here. Every faith is practiced here. Every dream has arrived here.
This isn’t our weakness. It’s our superpower. It’s the source of American creativity, innovation, resilience, prosperity and greatness.
The people who tell Americans to fear diversity are asking Americans to fear the very thing that made the country exceptional in the first place.
America became the world’s indispensable nation, not despite its diversity, but because of it.
The genius of the American experiment was that people from everywhere could become one people — not identical, uniform or tribal.
American.
That idea inspired billions, and now that inspiration is fading.
The Pew survey isn’t merely a polling result.
It’s a warning.
Around the world, people are changing their minds about the United States.
Trust, once lost, is difficult to recover.
Respect, once squandered, is difficult to regain.
Credibility, once broken, is difficult to rebuild.
Donald Trump has managed to accomplish in less than two years what America’s adversaries spent generations trying and failing to achieve.
He has weakened confidence in the United States. He has damaged America’s reputation. He has diminished American influence. He has made America appear less dependable, less stable and less trustworthy.
It’s remarkable, tragic, dangerous, and it was entirely unnecessary.
The collapse revealed by this survey isn’t a verdict on the American people.
It isn’t a verdict on American ideals.
It isn’t a verdict on the promise of the United States.
It’s a verdict on failed leadership. The world still wants an America worthy of admiration.
The question is whether America still wishes to be admired because there’s a profound difference between being feared and being respected.
The architects of American power understood that.
Donald Trump never did.
The bill is now arriving.
The cost will be paid not only in prestige, but eventually in security, prosperity and peace.
The loneliest superpower is also the most vulnerable one.
Oh, if only we had known about Trump's character. Oh, we did. We elected a lying conman, a sexual predator, a convicted felon. Shame on main stream media and shame on us.
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