In his return to the White House, Donald Trump once again sounded the slogan “Making America Great Again” (Maga), who echoes nationalist pride and nostalgic call. However, under populist rhetoric is a paradox: while claiming to restore American grandeur, the political agenda of Trump systematically undermines the pillars which historically supported it. In the Liberal International Order (Lio) and Democratic Institutions with US global economic leadership and the influence of the soft power, Trump 2.0 does not seem to reconstruct American pre -eminence, but he rather dismantled his foundations. While the United States (United States) withdraws from world leadership and saw political polarization, it risks giving geopolitical terrain to China and descending in domestic instability. The results are not a renewed era of magnitude, but a new phase of sorrow – economically, diplomatically and ideologically.
To understand what is at stake, you must first ask: what made America great? The Lio of the post-Second World War is at the heart of the answer. Redged by institutions such as United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), these institutions were mainly designed by the United States to promote peace, economic interdependence, neoliberalism, free trade and democratic standards. Coupled with this institutional architecture was the unequaled soft power in America – a term invented by Joseph Nye (2004) – referring to its ability to influence global affairs not by coercion but by attraction. Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Ivy League illustrate a cultural and intellectual hegemony that has inspired admiration and emulation worldwide. The American dream, symbolizing economic growth and individual freedom, has become an aspiration for many of those who want a better standard of living.
America’s economic leadership was dominant. The US dollar has worked as global reserve currency, its markets have led global growth and its innovations – from microchips to vaccines – establish the rate of technological progress. For decades, the United States was a military superpower and a lighthouse of democratic institution and capitalism, where academic freedom, meritocracy and multiculturalism thrive. Trump’s recent political resurgence threatens to unravel this heritage. Its nationalist and isolationist policy is against multilateralism, rejects immigration and erects commercial barriers – all under the cunning of the restoration of sovereignty and the Maga. However, these policies conflict directly with Lio, which allows American hegemony.
The most visible example is perhaps Trump’s antagonism towards American alliances and multilateral institutions. Its NATO labeling as “obsolete”, withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, threatens to leave the World Health Organization (WHO) during a world pandemic, and its WTO Sapper represents a radical break in the years of bipartite consensus of foreign policy. Trump’s plan does not project strength but signals an assignment of responsibility and leadership, creating an empty of power increasingly filled by China, Russia and the regional powers in international politics. Trump and Zelensky’s confrontation in the oval office does not increase good for the allies to put the faith in the United States for security.
In economic terms, Trump’s “America First” trade policy has led to pricing wars with allies and adversaries, in particular China. Although designed as a strategy to protect American manufacturing, these commercial wars have led to an increase in consumer costs, reprisals that have injured American farmers and disturbances in global supply chains. The rejection of multilateral trade agreements, such as the transpacific partnership (TPP), allowed China to improve its influence on the Asia-Pacific markets without opposition. China has instituted a regional regional economic partnership (RCEP) in Asia-Pacific. Trump’s protectionist policies pose significant challenges to the American economy and the broader process of free trade, an area in which the United States has historically played a leading and trendy role.
More disturbing is the erosion of American democratic standards under the presidency of Trump. The expulsion of student demonstrators, reducing research funding in universities, reducing scientific research collaboration, supporters of Trump Attaler Capitol Hill, threatening to reduce the funds for the DEI program (diversity, equity and inclusion), reducing USAID (American agency for international development) and Elon Musk’s interference in governance marks a significant democratic return. The international image of America as a stable democracy – once a source of soft power – is now open by internal conflicts and political extremism.
While the United States turns to the interior, China accelerates its global ascent, often occupying the very spaces that the United States leaves. Thanks to initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China extends its geopolitical and economic imprint through Africa, Asia and Latin America. Beijing is now leading to investment in renewable energy, scientific research and infrastructure diplomacy, projecting itself as an alternative to the Lio led by the United States. China’s growing participation in the United Nations peacekeeping, aggressive technological progress in semiconductors and 6G also illustrate this change. On the other hand, Trump’s withdrawal from global forums has made normative and strategic terrain in Beijing – reflecting what was once a unipolar world led by the United States in a multipolar competition with an authoritarian overabundance.
The consequences of these policy changes are deeply felt at the national and international level. At the national level, America is experiencing an increasing political polarization, a cultural division and an economic recession. Globally, confidence in American leadership decreases. The allies in Europe and Asia are increasingly putting American reliability. Multilateral cooperation is tense by American unpredictability. Trump said the allies and adversaries have exploited the United States, causing substantial national losses. By depicting America as a victim, Trump calls on nationalist feelings, encapsulated in his slogan Maga. This account is parallel to the strategic invocation by China of its historical experience of foreign invasions and national humiliation, which has contributed to the decline of PAX SINICA. In contemporary global policy, the United States and China seem to mobilize nationalism to rejuvenate their respective nations – whether to maintain Pax Americaa or to revive a new form of PAX SINICA.
If America continues on Trump’s trajectory, it will not lead to greatness but sorrow and, consequently, a decline of influence, legitimacy and power. The United States can be on the verge of living an economic slowdown recalling the great depression (1929-1939), a period marked by a catastrophic stock market and a prolonged recession. Recent developments, such as the announcement of China deep AI – posted as a potential chatgpt rival – have generated significant volatility in the American financial markets, contributing to the uncertainty of investors. In addition, current tensions focused on prices as part of Trump administration have fueled the stock markets on the stock market. In this context, the Magan slogan could turn into “making America cry again”, similar to the great depression.
Donald Trump’s rhetoric of Maga could call on nostalgic people from a bygone time of uncontested American supremacy. However, the political path he traces erodes the very foundations of this supremacy. The greatness of America has not been built on walls and prices, but on opening, alliances, leadership and democratic integrity. By undermining these principles, Trump 2.0 may replace greatness with sorrow, which implies American exceptionalism and the world order which it has formerly led. If the United States wants to recover the real size, it must re-engage for the ideals and institutions that have raised it, not by withdrawing. Trump must understand that states work on states, not populism. Populism can gain an election, but in the long term, populist policy is detrimental to the state.
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