Trump Has Forever Changed America's Place in the World
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Why does the episode say the U.S. global standing is forever altered?
This is On The Media's Midweek Podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. You know, the president's insistence that a deal with Iran is almost done has a sort of feeling of Groundhog Day.
The strait's going to be open very soon, or they're going to get hit very hard, and then the strait's going to be open. This is the last chance. If they back out again, they're going to get hit really hard. You know, they know that. They understand that.
Whether or not a deal is reached to end the hostilities and open the Strait of Hormuz, the United States standing on the world stage has been forever altered by this administration's maneuvering over the last year and a half. Remember Greenland?
The president tonight in the heart of Europe abruptly backing off two bold threats regarding his ongoing quest to control Greenland, tariffs and military action, posting he's reached a framework of a future deal with the secretary general of NATO. But when pressed, providing no further details.
That was just hours after Trump gave an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos back in January, in which he rambled on ominously about how the U.S. needs to own Greenland.
All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland. We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won't give it. They have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.
Greenland is, of course, part of Denmark, a U.S. ally and a member of NATO. Thus, Trump, with his demands and his threats, stood likely to upend a mutual defense contract and a solid alliance between the U.S. and much of Europe and Canada that's been a shield and a hedge against aggression since 1949. Denmark sent troops to the island in the high north to defend against Trump's imperial ambitions. At Davos, some of America's once staunchest allies basically said they'd had enough, like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Of course, nostalgia is part of our human story, but nostalgia will not bring back the old order.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney...
that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful, and American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes. This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
In January, I spoke to Garrett M. Graff, journalist, historian, and author of a piece in Wired titled, We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of an Empire.
since he came to office a year ago, Donald Trump has set about consciously dismantling what to me are the six core sources of national strength and influence for the United States on the world stage.
Right, you call them the six pillars, just go through them all.
The first is easy access of immigrants to the United States and the pull of foreign students to our world-class schools and universities.
Okay, now let's go to the second pillar, rich and steady government support of higher education, medical research, and laboratories.
How did Trump’s Greenland demand threaten NATO and U.S.–Denmark ties?
And, of course, it's very related to that first pillar, how we have these world-class schools and why they attract the very best talent from all over the world.
And the third pillar?
The whole story of growth of the economy in the last 50 years has been the story of broad trade access to U.S. markets and reciprocally a flow of U.S. products to the rest of the world, lowering trade barriers and making the global economy ever more frictionless.
The fourth one is an unyielding and unquestionable adherence to the rule of law at home.
The rule of law in the United States had been so firmly established, the idea of a fascist government secret police, that a president would be using the Justice Department to punish political enemies, that business leaders would actually have to think about their standing with the president personally to decide whether they could move forward with a corporate merger, or...
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