The American Century is Over

Making China and Russia Great Again

President in Name Only Donald Trump delivered remarks to a joint session of Congress typical of him—overstuffed, narcissistic, mean-spirited, and deeply dishonest. And boring—not to mention interminable. Some (smart) Democrats chose not to attend, others held up signs of defiance, still others boldly walked out, with some wearing shirts stating “No King Lives Here.” He insulted Democrats; played authoritarian bully by having the Sergeant-at-Arms performatively throw out Representative Al Green for protesting his fallacies too loudly; claimed the presidency was his; whined about the prosecutions (again!); trumpeted fake numbers; and relentlessly smeared his predecessor. (He also confessed that Elon Musk headed DOGE, thereby blowing his lawyers' defense that someone else was running it.)

In sum, it was the smallest, lowest speech in modern presidential history.

Far more significant than the bombast, bluster, and blatant lies Vladimir Putin’s poodle delivered to Congress and the country Tuesday night was the context in which he delivered them. Trump has brought down the curtain on nearly 80 years of American dominance in the world. To boot, in six weeks he’s gone a long way toward wrecking our economy.

Let’s remember what Trump has thrown aside in his spasm of “America First” petulance. Before the Soviet Union and satellite Warsaw Pact states crumbled under the weight of Communism’s cruelty and corruption, the United States shared superpower status with the USSR. After the Wall came down in 1989, the U.S. enjoyed a period of unprecedented influence, military superiority, and moral suasion as the world’s sole superpower.

Now, thanks to Trump’s pettiness, obliviousness, neediness, and malevolence, the U.S. has boosted China and become second fiddle to Putin’s Russia. Still possessing the world’s greatest military and economy, Trump apparently decided America should be irrelevant to European security and a scofflaw on the world stage.

After Trump’s tantrum in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his inevitable but nevertheless stunning cut-off of military assistance, Trump’s GOP sycophants are left struggling to maintain the lie that this was some spectacular show of American strength. In reality, it hurled us to the sidelines, handed Putin the upper hand, and made us the object of scorn and disgust. Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and a handful of other Republicans expressed hope we could get the mineral deal (a Trump fig leaf to stick with Ukraine) back on track.

Europe is clear-eyed. “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”

The soon-to-be German chancellor was more dismissive of us. “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Frederich Merz said. “I never thought I would have to say something like this on a television program. But after Donald Trump's statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”

While the Kremlin patted Trump on the head for betraying our democratic ally and aligning the U.S. with Putin’s decrepit, weak, and backward country, the real leaders of the Free World—the European powers—will decide on an approach to Ukraine. The U.S. has not been so irrelevant to Europe’s future since the start of WWII.

The damage does not stop there. The other dire announcement on Monday was that Trump is going forward with tariffs against Mexico, Canada, and China. This provoked a massive selloff in the U.S. markets. Predictably, they retaliated. That continued on Tuesday. Who could be surprised?

The implementation of those tariffs, followed swiftly by retaliatory tariffs, pushed us further down the road of economic disaster. “The world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s unless the U.S. rows back on its plans to impose steep tariffs on imports, a senior official at the International Chamber of Commerce warned,” according to the Wall Street Journal. There is little sign Trump will retreat.

Trump certainly has made his mark. “The Atlanta Fed’s GDP tracker now indicates that the economy is headed for a 1.5% contraction in the first quarter, after showing 2.3% growth just days earlier,” Fortune magazine reported. “That also marks a sharp reversal from the fourth quarter, when GDP expanded by 2.3%.” That’s all the time it took for Trump to throw a monkey wrench into the American economy.

He promised to reduce prices; tariffs are pushing prices higher. He promised super growth and more jobs; we are heading for a possible recession, and he has laid off hundreds of thousands of government workers. The Economist surmised that Trump’s “arrival in the White House is both causing and coinciding with a period of weakness for America’s economy.”

Trump already is inflicting real damage on the economy:

Even if Mr Trump again delays imposing levies on Canada and Mexico, as he did a month ago, he seems determined to raise tariffs on friends and foes alike—a more aggressive lurch towards protectionism than in his first term. As higher prices weigh on consumption and manufacturing, his tariffs could lop off a percentage point from America’s growth rate, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, a bank. Measures of uncertainty about trade policy have spiked higher, meaning businesses may restrain from making investments.

Aside from the economic havoc he has caused, Trump seems to be doing his best to undermine a global, rules-based trading system that has benefited the U.S. for decades. As the New York Times put it, “Gone is the alliance-first foreign policy of past administrations. The first weeks of the second Trump term have taken on the feel of America vs. the world.”

If we ditch the “global trading system and a world economic order that once revolved around a U.S. economy that prized open investment and free markets,” which has allowed the U.S. and its trading partners to increase their standard of living, as the Times described it, we are benefiting primarily one country: China. Trump’s tariffs effectively encourage “more countries to deepen economic ties with China… [and] the disruption to the U.S. supply chains and Mr. Trump’s plans to back away from investments in clean energy and electric vehicles could ultimately benefit the world’s second-largest economy.”

In sum, forget the chest thumping, the bald-faced lies, and the ludicrous self-congratulations you heard tonight. No president has done more to harm our economy and standing in the world. Donald Trump is making China and Russia great again. The U.S., on his watch, is the loser.